If I had the power to change things – UPDATED VERSION!

I did this post over nine years ago. Crazy, right? I went over some of the things I would do if I was put in control of college football. So maybe it’s about time to see how I did and then look at a few more things I would do. Let’s fucking go with this potential bullshit!

1. In OT, they should start farther back than the 25-yard line. OK they still haven’t changed this and they have made it worse by going to the 2-point shootout after the second overtime period. That is so ridiculous. Either take out the gimmick (which reminds me of the penalty shootout at the end of regular season hockey games which also drives me nuts) or make it so teams can tie after two overtime periods like in the CFL. College football had the greatest overtime format and they have somehow been overtaken by the NFL who, for all the good they do with rule changes, spent years fucking up their overtime games and basically stumbled upon rules changes thanks to the Bills and…well, I don’t want to talk about it.
2. Stop time after EVERY first down makes the game a little longer than most can handle. They listened! THEY LISTENED! Kind of. I had proposed doing it in the final five minutes of each half or even in the second and fourth quarter only. They do it all game now. Which is good? Problem is, some of that saved time has gone to more ad breaks. That is not so good. All in all, we will call this a push but it definitely leads into my next point that I had made…
3. Three-hour TV windows are dumb. This is still the case. And it’s done even more than it was back then. ESPN does it a few times a year with their evening games by pushing them to 6:00 and 9:00 so that the late SEC game isn’t TOO late. Now the ACC Network also does this one week, usually Week 2. They have so many games for their teams that they have to do this. At least they are smart enough to start at 11:00 and this past season, moved to three hour, fifteen minute windows for some of the games. That’s a perfect compromise. Expect other conference networks to potentially try this with conferences becoming bloated.
4. Can we stop with the games against FCS schools outside of the first month? No, it seems like they can’t. The SEC has dialed it back a bit. Only about half their teams (if that) play those games during the penultimate weekend of the regular season. But now we have the ACC doing it now. Stop it. Please. Play them in October. November should be for the biggest games, not Western Illinois (no offense to the Leathernecks) going to Georgia to get their asses handed to them for three-quarters of a mil.
5. Start Division 4 right now. I think I need to tweak this idea since a fuck-ton of realignment has happened in nine years. I am going to change this into football becoming its own special college sport and not totally following conference alignments in the rest of the sports. Don’t get me wrong, some of the realignments have been good but many have been weird, head-scratching, money-hungry or just plain dumb. So let football have their own conference alignments and allow the rest of the sports to go back to having the Southwest Conference or the Metro Conference or maybe other, better, more geographically sensible conferences since even in basketball, going halfway across the United States for a Tuesday night conference game is beyond ridiculous.
6. Is it time about time that CIS teams move south so to speak? At the time, I used Simon Fraser being in D-II as a starting point. Now, SFU doesn’t even have a football team thanks to their athletic department being a complete dumpster fire (not to mention much of the administration). Rogers still has their NHL contract for another few years (and there seems to be a bit of regret on their end which I mentioned would happen) so any CIS football, especially OUA, won’t be shown on their network any time soon. Maybe TSN can step up a bit with TSN+. Putting even one game a week (to start) on the streaming platform would be a good beginning to get eyeballs back on university football in this country. So, do I still think CIS teams should join the NCAA? Not nearly as much as I used to but some programs (I’m looking at you, York) need to seriously think about whether continuing having a football program is worth it.
7. Let us all be able to get the ESPNs, FOX Sports 1, etc. Yeah not even close. The amount of games available to us up here is still the same, if not a bit less now. Peacock has joined the fray and we cannot get those games up here. Still can’t get any of the FOX, FS1 or, now, FS2 games up here in Canada. I’ve always said (and I will continue to say it) that the death of cable (which still will happen regardless of all these streaming services teaming up in a way) will partially come down to not giving the customers what they want to see, especially if they are willing to pay for it. I had mentioned years ago that I would pay a few hundred bucks a season if I could have access to have every FBS game on TV. Every one. I don’t care about news or movies or TV shows or much else. Those I can watch when I want on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime or some other streaming service if I really want to. But college football is the one thing I would want all of and should have the ability to get but I have the god damn audacity to be Canadian. What a dick I am. So yeah, this should still happen.
8. Do not put out the CFP poll until the bowl games are being selected. Because The Committee is filled with people who know college football but struggle with logic, you get situations like you got this past season. It easily (and I mean FUCKING EASILY) could have been rectified if when they had dropped Florida State to #5 after Week 13, they kept them there after Week 14, even though they knew one of Michigan and Ohio State was going to lose. Sure it wouldn’t have been that well received but then they wouldn’t have looked like complete assholes when they dropped them in the final poll to destroy their national championship hopes. If they wait until just as the bowl games and playoff seedings are being selected, then there’s not nearly as much of a problem. Debate all you want but at least you don’t compare it to previous weeks’ polls which make The Committee look like fucking idiots.

Alright, that was the list nine long years ago. I was in my 30s. And, looking at my body, a lot fitter. I hate the fact that injuries can happen due to nothing but air and movement these days. Other than what I see in the mirror, a lot has changed in college football as well since then. So I guess I have to come up with a few more things I would change. Here we go.

1. Someone other than the NCAA has to put forth strict NIL rules and regulations. This feels like a no-brainer. When NIL started, it was great. Great stories of these players getting some nice deals and some players even sharing the wealth with their teammates. Awesome. Then, to the shock of absolutely no one, things got out of hand. Quickly. Now players are making hundreds of thousands of dollars (which is fine) but it has nothing to do with their name, image or likeness. All it has to do with a booster (or group of boosters) ponying up a bunch of money to buy a player’s loyalty (for at least a year). Isn’t this the same kind of shit SMU got the death penalty for? There has to be rules to all this and keeping boosters out of the player payment business would be first and foremost on that agenda. Start there, draft something up, tell all the teams they will abide by it or there will be penalties. Keep going against the rules, you will give up the one thing they all covet: money. If a program is fined millions of dollars, they will think twice of allowing some of these boosters, who think they can do whatever the fuck they feel like, from digging their claws into some of their roster.
2. Football players (if not players in other sports) should be able to drop down to a part-time course load during the season. Playing college sports is not easy. You have to organize your time. I remember when I was a university athlete. I couldn’t get things right. I found it too difficult to commit to a sport AND a full-time course load. I am sure other athletes feel the same way. And the way college athletics are going, these students don’t need to finish their degrees before they leave school. They should be able to finish when they can. This may also push some student-athletes to be in more difficult programs. I mean there can only be so many communications jobs out there, right?
3. Targeting HAS to be figured out. Does anyone really know what targeting is? Hell, the officials struggle to figure it out so I am not surprised everyone else is perplexed by it. Most of it seems to centre around hitting a player with the crown of your helmet. And yes, it’s dangerous. I still remember getting speared in practice in high school by a guy who had never been on special teams before. It knocked the wind out me something fierce. It’s a player safety issue and has to be taken seriously. Splitting the penalty into Targeting 1 and Targeting 2 penalties is a good start in my opinion. Targeting 2 can be reserved for the egregious penalties where the player deserves to be ejected. And hell, throw a 20-yard penalty on to it instead of a 15. Hopefully that helps a bit. Targeting 1 can still be 15 yards but the player stays in the game. The coaches and players may understand this better and we can see how it goes for a few years before looking into it again and adjusting it where need be.
4. If there are going to be more superconferences (and less conferences in FBS in general) it’s time all conferences go to nine conference games. A few years back I would have railed against this idea but I didn’t realize that conferences might hit the 20-team mark in the next few years. Give it a decade and there is no way there will be nine conferences like there are now. At least one, if not multiple, conferences will cease to exist. With upwards of 18 teams at this point, putting an extra conference game makes all the sense in the world. Many Power Five teams can still have their one FCS non-conference game (which gives some FCS teams a much needed infusion of cash), along with a Group of Five non-conference game. Add a P5 non-conference game and there you go. See how easy that is? Do I have to figure everything out for you guys?

Are there other things needed to “fix” college football? Of course. It feels like college football is barreling down (in one of those Japanese bullet trains) towards no return. Where it will look not a whole lot different than the minor league of the NFL. It kind of is already but in 2030 I have a feeling we will look at even just before COVID and say “college football wasn’t like that, was it?”

The combine is occurring and I am glad to see some players saying “Fuck that noise.” If scouts can’t figure things out from the absolute avalanche of game film on these guys then they should find another line of work. No, instead we have to do drills that, as much as some want to say otherwise, don’t mean a whole lot compared to how they play the game. Tom fucking Brady just ran the 40 faster at 46 years old than he did when he was at the Combine. If that doesn’t tell you that the Combine is just basically Scouting Bonerfest, I don’t know what will.

Anyway, the UFL is coming up at the end of the month and I am less than mildly interested. I’ll watch but I won’t be really watching. Now, this European League of Football…if I could get that it would be interesting. It looks like if you had MACtion in Germany. I love it. Anyway, everyone have a great week.

Realignment: One of college football’s dirtiest words

Realignment. It excites and infuriates people. It has changed college football (and college basketball) forever. Money rules the day as some of these conferences don’t even make sense anymore. The Big Ten will soon have sixteen teams with two of them based in California: thousands of miles away from all the other teams in the conference. The SEC will have sixteen teams and, sorry, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Missouri really don’t qualify as “Southeastern” unless you are terrible at geography. Don’t even get me started on how the Sun Belt and Conference USA have bungled realignment in the past. At least the Sun Belt a) has Fun Belt football and b) acquired some good programs. Something Conference USA just hasn’t figured out.

I figured, since I’m bored and there’s not a ton to post about and we are about to go into the football dead season (don’t say XFL or USFL), I would make this post on realignment. Don’t run away! I plan to look at realignment the way I would have had it done or what I thought would have made sense. I’m not going to put Texas State in the SEC or anything stupid like that but I will take a thoughtful look at what has happened and what I think should have happened. In some cases, they may be the same! Let’s get started before I regret doing this.

Now I don’t plan on going back to 1962 and say “Well, the Border Conference never should have been disbanded.” Before my time so I don’t really care. I also won’t say the Georgia Tech or Tulane shouldn’t have left the SEC. Of course they shouldn’t have. But they were going to at some point, be it in the mid-60s or even in the 80s. It was going to happen. I will start with a year that is not paramount at all in the minds of realignmentheads but will contain something from earlier in the 80s that many know about…

(WARNING: This will be a very, very long post so strap in.)

1987

Wichita State drops football for good. Akron moves up from Division 1-AA (remember that?) to be an Independent. Nothing big. Oh wait…

Hey, remember the Big East? In football? OK it wasn’t a thing in 1987 but the conference had been formed back in 1979. In ’82, Penn State applied for membership. Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova voted against the Nittany Lions joining. This would have been on that Freezing Cold Takes Twitter account if it Twitter existed like 30 years ago. If I had been in charge, I would have made sure at least one of those schools changed their vote to include Penn State. And instead of waiting until the 90s, I would have started Big East football in 1987 because why the hell not. So nine Independent schools would form this new conference:

• Penn State, Syracuse, Rutgers, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Miami, Temple, Virginia Tech and West Virginia

Way to go Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova. Idiots. Also, this means Penn State doesn’t move to the Big Ten in the early 90s.

1989

Louisiana Tech moves up from 1-AA to 1-A as an Independent. Also, SMU returns from the death penalty that, in hindsight, was a terrible move. Either go after more of the schools that had issues (like the entire Southwest Conference) or just ban SMU from bowl games for a bunch of years. What they did set SMU football (and only SMU football) back 20 years. Notice how they have never done it again in football despite the fact they could have easily done it on a few occasions? That’s why.

1991

In one of the biggest moves at the time, Florida State joins the ACC.

1992

Look, I get it. The Southwest Conference was a complete mess for most of its existence. Sure, they had some great football teams but more often than not they were mired in some sort of scandal.

Saying that, I would have done my darndest to keep Arkansas in the SWC. And I wouldn’t have stopped there. Rice, sorry, you gone. There’s no reason to keep you around since you’re terrible in football and not much better in basketball. Yes, it’s one of the top academic schools in the nation and no, I don’t care. They can become an Independent. So at this point, the SWC would look like this:

• Arkansas, Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech, Houston

That’s still a good, competitive conference at this point.

South Carolina, on the other hand, does join the SEC, moving that conference to a somewhat awkward eleven teams. Akron moves to the MAC. Fresno State goes from the Big West to the WAC and Long Beach State drops their football program altogether. To replace LBSU and Fresno, Nevada moves up from 1-AA to 1-A and the Big West. Finally, Arkansas State also moves up from Division 1-AA to Division 1-A as an Independent.

1993

Penn State DOESN’T join the Big Ten since they are part of a better Big East (in my opinion). Cal State-Fullerton becomes the second Big West team in as many years to drop football altogether. Because of this, the Big West went on an invitation spree, bringing in Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinois and Southwestern Louisiana (which is now just Louisiana), meaning they really had forgot about the West part of their conference name.

1994

Northeast Louisiana moves up from Division 1-AA to 1-A. They are now called ULM. Ho hum.

1995

Another almost-nothing year. North Texas moves to 1-A. Big whoop.

1996

This was a huge year in realignment as the Big XII came into existence, with the Big Eight absorbing four programs from the Southwest Conference. I wouldn’t go that route. I think it would be the reverse. The Southwest Conference keeps their name and absorbs all eight of the Big 8 schools. The new sixteen-team conference would be huge. I just hope they don’t go to pod scheduling. Wait, I’m running things. So no, they won’t go that route. Anywhere from two-to-four yearly opponents with the rest being filled in based on order of finish the previous season, like it should be almost everywhere.

Now, because of this, Conference USA loses one member, Houston. With some foresight, they should have kept the other five teams they had and added Rice, Tulsa, Louisiana Tech (from the Big West) and North Texas. This would give this conference the following:

• Cincinnati, Louisiana Tech, Louisville, Memphis, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa

That’s a pretty good start for a new mid-major conference in football.

The WAC also has to change. See, they now don’t get Rice, SMU, TCU or Tulsa. So time to pick up some other teams. Time to basically fuck the Big West over. Bring in Nevada, Utah State, UNLV and New Mexico State. This would give the conference the following teams:

• BYU, Utah, New Mexico, UTEP, Wyoming, San Diego State, Colorado State, Air Force, Fresno State, San Jose State, Hawaii, UNLV, Nevada, Utah State

That’s a lot of realignment and we aren’t even done yet. The Big West is pretty much ravaged by what the WAC did. Boise State and Idaho move up from 1-AA to 1-A to replace some of the teams but Pacific drops football altogether. The Big West sticks at six teams as Northern Illinois stays in the conference rather than going back to Independent status. Same with Louisiana and Arkansas State although it’s obvious the Big West is on its last legs as a football conference.

Finally, UCF and UAB move from Division 1-AA to 1-A as Independents.

1997

The MAC only gets Northern Illinois (from the Big West) as I would have Marshall head to Conference USA along with East Carolina.

With only five teams remaining, the Big West Conference is dead as it pertains to football. Boise State and San Jose State are invited to the WAC, while the other three teams (Arkansas State, Idaho and Louisiana) become Independents.

1998

Army does not join Conference USA. We all know how that worked out and even at the time, a lot of people thought it was a bad idea.

1999

Yeah sure why not. Let’s form the Mountain West. Arkansas State might as well stay Independent for now. The Big West doesn’t exist and there’s no reason for them to head to the WAC. Buffalo moves up from 1-AA right into the MAC. Middle Tennessee also moves up but as an Independent. Idaho moves into the WAC. Finally, UAB finds a conference home as they head to Conference USA.

2000

Two fairly benign moves: USF and UConn join the Division 1-A Independents from Division 1-AA.

2001

The Big West died (in football) and the Sun Belt started sponsoring football. Thing is, I eliminated the Big West five years ago. So Idaho and New Mexico State, now in the WAC, will not move to the Sun Belt because they don’t have to. Also, Utah State can stay in the WAC now. So the Sun Belt would comprise of Arkansas State, Louisiana, ULM, Middle Tennessee and North Texas, who moves from Conference USA. They bring in Troy State so the Trojans aren’t an Independent.

2002

Another skipped move: UCF just doesn’t bother joining the MAC because it’s the fucking MAC and they don’t need a team in Florida. Instead they just move to Conference USA a year early.

2003

Utah State doesn’t move to the Sun Belt because WHY? They are in the WAC and they can stay there. USF does, however, move. They head to Conference USA to join brother UCF.

2004

Oh baby here we go. Miami and Virginia Tech will NOT be moving to the ACC! They will stay in the Big East as UConn joins. I mean we don’t get ACC Coastal Chaos but I think we can live without it.

Florida Atlantic and Florida International transition up from Division 1-AA to Independent status.

2005

This leads us to the next year where Boston College also doesn’t leave for the ACC. And with Cincinnati, Louisville and USF joining the Big East, it is becoming quite the conference. TCU doesn’t go to the Mountain West because they are already in the Southwest Conference which has weathered the storm until now. SMU also stays in the SWC and doesn’t move to Conference USA. UTEP does move from the WAC to Conference USA as it makes a bit more sense for them. FAU and FIU, one year after joining Division 1-A, move to the Sun Belt Conference. Finally, Temple does not get dropped from the Big East despite their terrible football program. I’m doing a lot of nothing with this which I am sure people will find actually refreshing. I’m sure that will change soon.

2008

WKU joins Division 1-A. I’m just going to put them right in the Sun Belt.

2011

Things were quiet for almost six years. Then the big bang hit in college football and everything went haywire went it came to the conferences and realignment. Will this be the same in Bossman’s Realignmentpalooza? No.

First off, Nebraska does leave for the Big Ten. Since Penn State never went to the Big Ten back in the 90s, this puts the new Big Ten at eleven teams. To make it even, they also invite KANSAS! Yes, I am serious. Kansas wasn’t too far from a few seasons of great football. And their basketball team was awesome as always. So this makes a lot of sense.

As for the Pac-10, they decided they wanted to bring in six schools from the Big XII. Instead, they will bring in those same six schools from the SWC: Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. This also means Utah does not join the now Pac-16 conference.

The SWC is now down to eight schools and, chances are, would lose their automatic BCS bowl bid. With a roster of Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Missouri, TCU, Houston, SMU and Arkansas they can’t make a claim to be worthy of one now. And because of that, Arkansas finally accepts the SEC’s overtures and heads there, dropping the SWC to a seven-team conference.

The trickle down effect was in play. Utah stayed in the Mountain West and was joined by Boise State. BYU also doesn’t leave the Mountain West for Independence at this point.

2012

Another crazy year in realignment that won’t be as crazy when I’m done with it. First off, Texas A&M won’t move to the SEC since they are happy in the somewhat new Pac-16. West Virginia also doesn’t move to the SWC since it would be even more ridiculous than their current move there is (although with Cincinnati in the fold it now makes more sense). Fresno State, Hawaii and Nevada leave the WAC for the Mountain West as it happened in real life. This leaves the WAC with four teams (New Mexico State, San Jose State, Idaho and Utah State). Texas State and UTSA joined to make six. For now, this leaves the WAC as a football conference…but barely.

Oh and Missouri does not go the SEC. I still believe this makes absolutely no sense. For now they stay in the SWC but it won’t be for long.

South Alabama moves up from an FCS Independent right to the Sun Belt conference.

Finally, UMass does not join the MAC. Another weird move by the MAC that doesn’t make sense now and didn’t back then.

2013

First of all, no American Conference. It’s still the Big East. If the basketball schools don’t like it, they can fuck off for the Patriot League or whatever. Also, Pitt and Syracuse do not leave the Big East for the ACC.

Now this becomes an issue because some schools were slated to head to the new American Conference. This is how I would plan to deal with this. Houston and SMU, instead of going to the AAC, stay in the Southwest Conference. They are joined by Memphis, who leaves C-USA for the SWC.

Remember TCU, Boise State and San Diego State heading to the Big East/American? I don’t see that happening now. Instead, Boise State and San Diego State head to the SWC.

San Jose State and Utah State put the final nail in the WAC football coffin by accepting bids to the Mountain West. Idaho and New Mexico State are, once again, Independent teams. Texas State heads to the Sun Belt with UTSA going to Conference USA.

UCF heads to the Big East (not American). Then Conference USA raids the Sun Belt for four teams: FAU, FIU, Middle Tennessee and North Texas. Finally, the Sun Belt reloads, kind of, by accepting Georgia State from FCS.

2014

Louisville does decide to leave the Big East for the ACC. A bit surprising but I feel they belong there a bit better than the Big East.

I know the Big Ten wants to expand into new markets. But it won’t be happening in New York and Washington as Rutgers and Maryland do not leave their current conferences. They’ve been outliers since they moved there so I want to rectify that issue.

East Carolina heads to the Big East. An odd fit but between that and Conference USA, no one conference is a perfect fit for them so might as well move them up, so to speak. Tulane and Tulsa, on the other hand, do not go to the Big East. They head to the SWC, which is finally renamed the Big XII.

Conference USA backfills their losses with WKU from the Sun Belt and Old Dominion from FCS. After that, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern head to the Sun Belt from the FCS. Idaho and New Mexico State stay right where they are as Independents.

2015

The big happening in 2015 was UAB shuttering their football program. I am here to say it won’t happen! I don’t know how I would make that happen but I’ll figure something out.

Navy joins the Big East, ending over 100 years of Independent football and Charlotte transitions to FBS by joining Conference USA.

2017

One item: Coastal Carolina joins the Sun Belt from FCS.

2018

Poor Idaho. You would have thought they could have stayed up in FBS but it wasn’t to be. The Mountain West, the one conference it made sense for them to be in, didn’t want them. And the Sun Belt, which had them in reality for a few years, might as well have been on the moon compared to where they were situated. So they are gone to FCS, probably never to return.

In actuality, Liberty replaced them as an Independent. I’m just moving them straight to Conference USA instead. Take out the middle man.

2021

I’m not including any COVID-related moves like Notre Dame being in the ACC for one season (and almost winning the conference title).

UConn left the American to go back to the basketball-oriented Big East. In my world, that doesn’t happen. Actually, nothing happens at all here because the next year, the realignment bubble doesn’t burst: it gets blown up. So I have to put new pieces together in a brand new puzzle to make it work. Should be fun right?

2022

Who’s idea was this? Good lord. At least now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This season had some movement but at the low end of FBS. James Madison, an FCS powerhouse, finally moved up to FBS and joined the Sun Belt. Joining them would be three Conference USA teams: Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss.

Now, if you have read my blog before, you know how I feel about the Sun Belt and Conference USA. I find them to be unwieldy conferences with massive geographical footprints that, especially in C-USA’s case, make no sense. I plan on fixing it but not this year. Let the new teams breathe in their new conference before I blow things up with enough C-4 to level a city.

2023

Alright, let’s blow shit up.

Let’s start with the SEC which has been left behind a bit in my version of realignment. Consistency was the name of the game in the conference where it just means more. Well now they get the infusion they always hoped for. Sorry ACC. Sorry Big East. It was bound to happen. The SEC invites Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Clemson. They finally have attained that superconference status.

The ACC is gutted but won’t be for long. We will get to that in a bit.

The Big XII gets an infusion of teams as well. BYU, from the Mountain West, along with Cincinnati and UCF from the Big East, move to the Big XII. Because Houston was already in the Big XII, they now sit at fifteen teams. Not the best idea, especially for scheduling purposes. So they invite one more team: Utah. After missing out on the Pac-10/12/16/whatever years ago, they finally get into a power conference and deservedly so.

Hey remember what I said way back at the start. You know, the point about Penn State not going to the Big Ten. Well, it’s time they moved. With the Big East losing some teams and some conference strength, it’s time for the Nittany Lions to move up. They will bring with them Pittsburgh. Sure it’s not a brand new market but it gives PSU a travel partner and doesn’t go too far outside the current Big Ten geographic footprint, something I find important (although college sports most definitely does not).

New Mexico State gets a conference home again when they move to Conference USA. They are joined by Sam Houston and Jacksonville State who move up from FCS.

Done for this coming season but wait, there’s more!

2024

You really think I would have USC and UCLA go to the Big Ten? Fuck that noise. What I will be doing, however, is rather seismic.

The ACC is going to raid the Big East yet again. With only seven teams for the 2023 season, they were looking like a sorry-ass football conference. So they take Boston College, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn, Virginia Tech and West Virginia from the Big East. I’m not a fan of odd-numbered conferences, so they also pluck UCF from the Big XII.

Now we start the trickle-down effect. The Big XII (now Big XVI) will take Colorado State from the Mountain West. The Mountain West responds by grabbing New Mexico State from Conference USA.

And then, the coup de grace. I am going to totally remake Conference USA and the Sun Belt and finally put the nail in the coffin of Big East football, all in one fell swoop. This is how it will work (pay close attention):

• Conference USA will be the western-most conference of the two with the Sun Belt being the eastern-most. Why did I do this? Who knows.
• All four former Big East teams (East Carolina, Navy, Temple and USF) join the Sun Belt.
• Arkansas State, Louisiana, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Texas State, Troy and ULM move from the Sun Belt to Conference USA.
• Then Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Liberty and WKU move from Conference USA to the Sun Belt.

Look at that; two sixteen-team conferences that have a tighter geographic footprint. Makes travel easier and fosters better rivalries. Like college sports had been like for DECADES. Oh and if Louisiana Tech complains even once about being in the same conference as Louisiana or ULM they can be sent to FCS for all I care.

Alright, so now I bet you want to know what this all looks like. So here it is, in chart form with NO DIVISONS because divisions suck:

SEC	Big Ten	Pac-16	ACC	Big XVI
Alabama	Illinois	Arizona	Boston College	Baylor
Arkansas	Indiana	Arizona State	Duke	Boise State
Auburn	Iowa	California	Louisville	BYU
Clemson	Kansas	Colorado	Maryland	Cincinnati
Florida	Michigan	Oklahoma	NC State	Colorado State
Florida State	Michigan State	Oklahoma State	North Carolina	Houston
Georgia	Minnesota	Oregon	Rutgers	Iowa State
Georgia Tech	Nebraska	Oregon State	Syracuse	Kansas State
Kentucky	Northwestern	Stanford	UCF	Memphis
LSU	Ohio State	Texas	UConn	Missouri
Miami	Penn State	Texas A&M	Virginia	San Diego State
Mississippi State	Pittsburgh	Texas Tech	Virginia Tech	SMU
Ole Miss	Purdue	UCLA	Wake Forest	TCU
South Carolina	Wisconsin	USC	West Virginia	Tulane
Tennessee		Washington		Tulsa
Vanderbilt		Washington State		Utah
Mountain West	MAC	Sun Belt	Conference USA	Independents
Air Force	Akron	Appalachian State	Arkansas State	Army
Fresno State	Ball State	Charlotte	Jacksonville State	Notre Dame
Hawaii	Bowling Green	Coastal Carolina	Louisiana	UMass
Nevada	Buffalo	East Carolina	Louisiana Tech
New Mexico	Central Michigan	FAU	Middle Tennessee
New Mexico State	Eastern Michigan	FIU	North Texas
San Jose State	Kent State	Georgia Southern	Rice
UNLV	Miami-OH	Georgia State	Sam Houston
Utah State	Northern Illinois	James Madison	South Alabama
Wyoming	Ohio	Liberty	Southern Miss
	Toledo	Marshall	Texas State
	Western Michigan	Navy	Troy
		Old Dominion	UAB
		Temple	ULM
		USF	UTEP
		WKU	UTSA

Holy crap that took forever. But look at those conferences. I think they look way better than what we will see in reality, if I do say so myself. And if another team is moving up from FCS, they may just have to be an Independent for the near future…dammit Kennesaw State is moving up in 2024? Nope, not anymore. Not in Bossman’s realignment. I’m done.

So now we have the Dirty Dozen

No the movie the Dirty Dozen has nothing to do with the news that the College Football Playoff will be expanding to 12 teams, probably to start for the 2023 season. But what else was I supposed to put: a carton of eggs?

So if you have been living under a rock that may or may not give you all the news you want but mutes everything college football-related, the College Football Playoff will be expanded to 12 teams. This announcement was made late this past week and was met with, well, mixed remarks. Some loved it, some loathed it, some were indifferent, some were harping on other issues in the game. We all know what they are trying to do. Capture the magic of March Madness or perhaps the NCAA baseball postseason or even the FCS playoffs. The problem is that parity really does not exist in college sports. At all. And never has. Yes teams rise and teams fall but parity is not a thing that has existed. Let’s take those FCS playoffs. North Dakota State has dominated like no team ever before by winning eight of the last ten championships. That’s not parity. Before that, Appalachian State went back-to-back-to-back in the mid 2000s, and back in the 90s, Georgia Southern, Youngstown State and Marshall reigned supreme almost every year. People want to compare opening up the possibilities to that when the possibilities weren’t there? Sure, ok. I get it. Other teams technically get their shot. They’re in the dance, so to speak. I can appreciate that. But to say that this will create parity in FBS football is laughable. It might give us an upset or two but that’s about it. That’s the reality.

So why was this really done? Come on, do I have to spell it out for you? C-A-S-H. Money. Scratch. Other terms for legal tender. That’s all it is. More money. The New Year’s Six will essentially become the playoffs. Here is how it looks like it will shape up (since I am sure more details will be forthcoming in the months ahead):

• 12 teams qualify for the playoffs.
• The top 6 ranked conference champions, regardless of if they are Power Five or Group of Five conferences, qualify automatically.
• 6 at-large teams are selected from the rest. They might have won their conference championship and not have been in the top 6 conference champions.
• The top 4 ranked conference champions will receive first round byes.
• Notre Dame and BYU cannot be in the top 4 teams because they are not in a conference. The best they can do is be #5.
• The other eight will play in first round games at on-campus sites.

That was really the only info given. So a lot is left to be stated. My guess is this is how the rest of it will look:

• The first round will be #5 vs. #12, #6 vs. #11, #7 vs. #10, and #8 vs. #9. This has been implied but not actually stated.
• The winner of the #5/#12 matchup would face the #4 team. #6/#11 winner would get the #3 team, #7/#10 winner would get the #2 team and the #8/#9 winner would go to meet the #1 team. This is done so people can kind of get travel plans set up and not have to wait for reseeding after the first round.
• The quarter-finals would all be current New Year’s Six bowl games. Same with the semi-finals. I want to say that the Rose and Sugar would be the semi-finals but that is not a guarantee at this point.
• The championship would still be at another neutral site.

Pluses

For those who really hate almost any kind of playoff and yearn for the “good old days” of college football, there are no pluses. For those who eventually want a 64-team playoff say it’s all pluses. Let me be somewhat realistic about the pluses to this:

• The Group of Five is guaranteed a spot. With six conference champions guaranteed in, at least one G-5 team will get in, perhaps two. That is the biggest issue that has bothered the pro-playoff people, the lack of Group of Five teams. That worry is gone.
• The New Year’s Six bowls that aren’t the semi-finals will now be very relevant. The NY6 bowls that weren’t the semi-final games in any given year meant as much as the other bowl games: not a whole lot. Fun for the players, great for the coaches, and relatively profitable to the communities and charities but other than a banner, a win there itself meant nothing. Now they will mean something because they will be quarter-final games.
• Schools get another home game to make a ton of money. The 5 through 8 teams may make out the best here. They get another home game which should rack up a lot of dough for the program.
• Upsets. Let’s be honest: one of the biggest reasons, other than gambling, why March Madness is so amazing is upsets. Well, now you might have relatively monumental upsets (i.e. a G-5 team beating a P-5 team). And that’s what The Committee wants.

Minuses

Now for the minuses. And there are some for sure.

• The bigger regular season games aren’t as big anymore. This is undoubtedly true. The biggest games of the regular season won’t be nearly as important anymore. They can’t be. When 12 teams qualify, a game between the #1 and #5 team in the land is just for seeding purposes and byes. Not to miss the playoffs altogether.
• A better chance for a bad conference champion to make the playoff. I will get to more of this later but the chances of a 7-5 team winning their conference championship and getting to the CFP is on the table. And sorry, as much as teams should have a chance to play their way in, a team with 4 or 5 losses shouldn’t be in. Period.
• The other bowls mean even less. They were almost irrelevant as it is except for the communities and the charity work done there. Now these bowls will mean even less. And guaranteed at least a few of them will be eliminated (which will make the Too Many Bowls crowd happy at least).

A lot to digest for sure. I still have problems with moving to a 12-team playoff when there are other issues that have to be dealt with to set college football up to have a “proper playoff” so to speak. Eliminating divisions, having all conferences play the same amount of conference games, and eliminating preseason polls altogether are three issues that must be looked at or otherwise we could have a ton of problems with this new format. I mean some love it but they may not when there’s four SEC teams in the semi-finals and they made it there because the format allowed it, not because they “earned” it.

Alright let’s shift gears here. Many pundits are “re-doing” previous years with the new 12-team CFP structure. So I will select a few random years to see how it would set up and what we might see. Now remember, the rankings that year might not have been the rankings under this system because you have to be sure that The Committee might not see it the same way as it was back then. Also, I am going to assume the Rose and Sugar Bowls ARE the semi-finals in these exercises. Let’s begin!

1993

Let’s start with 1993. The year of the newest Game of the Century between Notre Dame and Florida State (and holy shit was it ever a great game). Florida State was able to recover from that loss to win the national championship. The Irish inexplicably fell to Boston College the following week to end their title hopes. Hell, the second spot in the championship probably should have gone to West Virginia instead of Florida State. So how would a 12-team playoff look during this season:

Byes: #1 Florida State (ACC champ), #2 Nebraska (Big 8 champ), #3 West Virginia (Big East champ), #7 Texas A&M (SWC champ)

#9 Wisconsin (Big 10 champ) at #8 Florida (SEC champ) (winner plays FSU in Orange Bowl)

#10 Miami at #6 Tennessee (SWC champ) (winner plays Nebraska in Cotton Bowl)

#11 Ohio State at #5 Auburn (winner plays West Virginia in Fiesta Bowl)

#12 North Carolina at #4 Notre Dame (winner plays Auburn in Citrus Bowl)

Interesting since Florida State being #1 means they could face Florida in the quarters at the Orange Bowl which would be a massive ratings success and could be a very tough game for the Noles. Other than if UNC beat the Irish, no other result would feel like an upset. I guess Nebraska and West Virginia (and maybe the Noles) not getting to the semis would kind of be considered an upset but really not. My guess is we would see two of the three I just mentioned in the championship game so not much would change.

2011

We leap to 2011. The year two SEC teams met in the national championship which basically was the final nail in the coffin for the BCS so we could say hello to the College Football Playoff. Also, if it hadn’t been for Iowa State upsetting Oklahoma State, the Cowboys of all teams would have found themselves facing the Tigers for the title. If the new setup was in place, that game really means nothing other than it was a cool upset to watch. Who knows if the BCS keeps going if that happens. Anyway, here we go:

Byes: #1 LSU (SEC champ), #3 Oklahoma State (Big XII champ), #5 Oregon (Pac-12 champ), #10 Wisconsin (Big Ten champ)

#8 Kansas State at #7 Boise State (winner plays LSU in Cotton Bowl)

#9 South Carolina at #6 Arkansas (winner plays Alabama in Orange Bowl)

#15 Clemson (ACC champ) at #4 Stanford (winner plays Oklahoma State in Capital One Bowl)

#18 TCU (MWC champ) at #2 Alabama (winner plays Oregon in Fiesta Bowl)

Here’s where things kind of go off the rails at the bottom of the bracket. Normally you would have had two of Virginia Tech, Michigan, or Oklahoma here. Bluebloods. Not so with the criteria. With only four conference champions in the top ten teams, Clemson and TCU get in as the next highest ranked conference champions. Houston would have been a shoo-in to go but their loss in the Conference USA championship leaves them on the outside looking in. Also, would they allow the Gamecocks to face Arkansas when they are in the same conference? I could see South Carolina ending up going to Boise (talk about your horrible weather game) and Arkansas getting Kansas State. Again, I can’t see any team outside the top three getting through this but you never know. Really, the biggest thing here would be if Boise handles Kansas State, can they somehow shock the world and beat LSU?

1987

This season ended up with Miami facing Oklahoma in a 1 vs. 2 matchup in the Orange Bowl for the national championship. Somewhat rare to have a bowl game get the top two teams back then. Syracuse was also a serious contender but ended up #4. Oh and SMU started the first year of their death penalty, something the NCAA will never give out again (and probably can’t at least in football).

Byes: #1 Oklahoma (Big 8 champ), #6 Auburn (SEC champ), #8 Michigan State (Big Ten champ), #10 UCLA (Pac-10 co-champ)

#7 LSU at #5 Nebraska (winner plays Oklahoma in Cotton Bowl)

#9 South Carolina at #4 Syracuse (winner plays Auburn in Orange Bowl)

#13 Texas A&M (SWC champ) at #3 Florida State (winner plays Michigan State in Citrus Bowl)

#14 Clemson (ACC champ) at #2 Miami (winner plays UCLA in Fiesta Bowl)

OK this DEFINITELY wouldn’t have worked back in ’87. Clemson again sneaks in because they need more conference champs. Same with Texas A&M this time around. Oklahoma State and Notre Dame miss out. Luckily back then there weren’t as many talking heads who would, you know, talk about it. But the conference champ in the top four thing can’t work back then with the amount of independents there were. This was before the Big East and before the ACC decided they needed Florida State. This means the Canes, Noles AND Orange would have to play in the first round. Brutal. This also means three of the four teams with first round byes would definitely be underdogs in the quarter-finals unless they were upsets. Crazy. Honestly, this could have been an interesting once since any one of the top 6 teams could have ended up in the final two considering this setup.

2007

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The Committee would have been full-fledged alcoholics after this season. Things changed so often from week-to-week that they would have struggled to wrap their heads around the whole thing. Even Ohio State, easily the #1 team, looked horrible in a loss to Illinois (ILLINOIS!) during the season. And remember, the #2 team lost seven times in the final nine weeks, an unprecedented amount that will probably never be matched. Let’s see what this shitshow would have churned out:

Byes: #1 Ohio State (Big 10 champ), #2 LSU (SEC champ), #3 Oklahoma (Big XII champ), #5 Virginia Tech (ACC champ)

#9 Florida at #8 Kansas (winner plays Ohio State in Cotton Bowl)

#10 Hawaii (WAC champ) at #7 Missouri (winner plays LSU in Outback Bowl)

#11 West Virginia (Big East champ) at #6 USC (Pac-10 champ) (winner plays Oklahoma in Fiesta Bowl)

#12 Arizona State at #4 Georgia (winner plays Virginia Tech in Orange Bowl)

And after I saw it will be a shitshow, it ends up being clean. Absolutely clean. I mean the road to get here would have been filled with potholes but the end result was, while not perfect, quite nice. A few nicks, no outright cuts. And some of the quarter-final matchups…wow! Could Kansas somehow beat tOSU? Could Mizzou keep the magical season going against who ended up being the national champ, LSU? And either West Virginia or USC playing Oklahoma? Yes, please. If this happened we wouldn’t think that 2007 was as wacky as it actually was.

So there you go. Four random seasons with varying degrees of success, so to speak. In the end, though, the cream will rise to the top. With four rounds to the playoffs, it will be rare if a team can run the table from the first round. I would expect one of the teams with a bye will end up winning the national championship. It will be interesting to see if college football continues to thrive or if they may have gone a bit too far this time. In terms of money and viewers, the sport keeps growing. Even with attendance going down slightly every season, those are the metrics they need to see grow. The next set of TV contracts will be the barometer of if this has already started to work or not.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Most Important Games of the 2020 College Football Season – Parte Trois

I think that’s the French translation (full disclosure: I was just average at French in Grade 9 and never took it afterwards).  No fun picture or huge rant to start this post.  Just getting right down to the schedule predictions, as wrong as they may be.  This is the true start of conference play with some really good football in these three weeks.  The third course of a huge Italian dinner so to speak.  So the meat portion.  Let’s say it’s also the cheese portion as well.  It’s that important.  Let’s go!

Week 8

Game of the Week: Ohio State at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – Could both of these teams enter the season in the Top 15?  Top 10?  Quite possibly.  I just received my first preview magazine (Athlon) so I will see what it says later today.  Anyway, no matter what, this is a potential Game of the Year candidate and could end up being the de facto Big Ten East championship.  I still have to favour the Buckeyes in this one thanks to one of Ric Flair’s most important quotes “To be the man, you have to beat the man.”  And as of right now, tOSU is still the Man of the Big Ten.

Other Really Important Games: Oklahoma State at Oklahoma (Noon, FOX) – Bedlam!  Not a whole lot else has to be said here.  One of the few super-important Big XII games this season.  Let’s see if The Mullet can finally overcome the Sooners in a game that truly matters to the Sooners’ Big XII title hopes.

Alabama at Tennessee (6:00, specialty pack) – Jeremy Pruitt is finally bringing the Vols back to some semblance of prominence in the SEC.  No easy task for sure.  Maybe they can finally make some waves in the SEC East so it’s not all Cocktail Party-heavy.  Yes I believe this will be one of those odd weeks with the 6:00/9:00 timeslots that ESPN uses sometimes.  I hated them when I was heavily dependent on my PVR.  It’s not as big a deal now but I can see some people not liking it.  For those people I say this: it could end up a blowout so by the time the ABC primetime game begins, this game will be essentially over.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Michigan State at Indiana (Noon, specialty pack) – So yeah this isn’t exactly a great week on paper.  The fact that there are only three true must-see games backs that up.  As for this game, I expect it to be a really close one.  Indiana continues to improve every season and maybe they could crack the Big Ten East’s top three.  MSU starts the Mel Tucker era so I am not so sure how they will do but they have been no worse than average for the past decade (except for one season).  Now watch this be a blowout and me look like an idiot.

Best Group of Five Game: Cincinnati at SMU (7:00, specialty pack) – Nice to see Cincinnati back in the spot of one of the best Group of Five teams.  It’s also nice to see SMU back to being a good team for the first time since before their Death Penalty.  This could end up being a preview of the AAC Championship game.

Worst Power Five Game: Nebraska at Rutgers (Noon, BTN) – Good lord.

Week 9

Game of the Week: Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (3:30, CBS) – World’s Largest Outdoor Mother Fucking Cocktail Party!  This is always fun to look forward to even if the game doesn’t always live up to the hype.  It also means that every year there is at least one event in Jacksonville that deserves some hype (Jacksonville Jag-you-ares jokes, gotta love em!).  I do wonder how these games will be broadcast this season.  Will the announcers be at the site of the games or will they call games from the studio?  Two-and-a-half months away and God only knows what will happen with all the Coronavirus stuff that could affect this season.  Again, it’s a small part of how crazy this season could end up being but I have heard games called in the studio a few times and it doesn’t seem like it matches up to when the announce team is there in person.

Other Really Important Games: Baylor at Texas (3:30, FOX) – I do wonder if this game will end up at Noon.  Another average week here for college football on paper so who knows what the networks will do with their weekly game picks.  The Big XII tends to get a bit of the shaft when it comes to Big Noon Saturday on FOX (although obviously not as bad as the Pac-12 who is completely shut out).  I will order some barbecue for dinner to watch the end of this game.  Possibly because it’s an all-Texas matchup.  Partially because I am a glutton.  Don’t judge me.

Penn State at Indiana (3:30, specialty pack) – Two weeks in a row for the Hoosiers on this list!  Tom Allen would be happy to see this and might punch a wall or headbutt a fan to celebrate.  Penn State is Penn State and should be at least Top 25 at this point so this could be a game between two ranked teams.  Say that about a decade ago and report back to me on the looks you get.

Kansas State at Iowa State (Thursday, 8:00, FloSports) – We are all used to the ESPN Thursday Night games.  Now many of us can be introduced to the FOX Sports One Thursday night matchups that don’t happen every week like ESPN’s but still tend to be fairly big Big XII or Pac-12 games.  Case in point, this matchup.  Farmageddon.  Two teams who will try to make it to the Big XII Championship for the first time since it has been reinstated.  The loser here is almost certainly out of contention for that.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Virginia Tech at Louisville (Noon, specialty pack) – This is an odd matchup here since a few years ago this would almost certainly be in the section above.  Right now I have it at Noon, going to ESPN and the specialty pack but it could end up in a variety of timeslots or networks depending on the performance of these two teams so far into the season.  Most games are not that much of a crapshoot.

Best Group of Five Game: Memphis at Cincinnati (7:00, specialty pack) – The plus with the weeks that aren’t that great looking is that it usually means that we have at least one fantastic Group of Five game.  This was the American Conference championship last season.  Memphis has to break in a new coach although considering how Mike Norvell is doing at Florida State already, this may be a good thing.  Ryan Silverfield is the new head coach and a relative unknown.  So the question is how quickly will he move on to a Power Five school?  Over/under set at three seasons.  Cincinnati still has Adam Sandler lookalike Luke Fickell as their head man.  Don’t be surprised if this gets moved to the ABC primetime slot.

Worst Power Five Game: Rutgers at Maryland (Noon, BTN) – OK I apologize to the previous week’s Worst Power Five Game entry.  This could be the worst Power Five game of the season unless Mike Locksley does something that counts as progress.  Great choices to add to the conference Big Ten.  Money well spent.

Week 10

Game of the Week: Alabama at LSU (3:30, CBS) – OK hear me out.  I know most will think that this should go to primetime on CBS and it may still end up that way.  I think after the success of Notre Dame-Georgia in the ratings that they might try something different to keep from having LSU-Bama burnout (which would happen everywhere except for the states of Louisiana and Alabama).  No matter where it ends up, this is a possible GOTY, possible de facto SEC West division title game, possible College Football Playoff elimination game, etc., etc.  A lot of “possible” in this game.

Other Really Important Games: Clemson at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – One of at least two NBC primetime Irish games this season.  This could also be a mega-matchup if Notre Dame is undefeated (or only have one loss) coming into this one.  If the Irish aren’t really that great, this moves way down the list and NBC might hate the fact it’s in primetime.

Oklahoma State at Baylor (8:00, well…) – Let me explain this.  ESPN+ will carry a certain amount of Big XII games this season.  This is done to boost ESPN+ since other than UFC I don’t know why anyone would order this, despite the fact it’s only $5 a month for Americans.  Now as far as I know, Canadians still cannot get ESPN+.  So we may very well be shut out of a very good college football game.  The more things change, the more things stay the same I guess.  Now let’s hope FOX picks it up and we don’t have to deal with this.

USC at Oregon (8:00, FOX) – I really do not have an answer as to who selects first on any given week, FOX or ABC/ESPN.  If FOX does pick this game, it could end up back at the 3:30 timeslot depending on the competition on other channels (and if the first game on this list does end up at 3:30).  As always, it’s a numbers and contracts game to try and figure out what goes where in the schedule.  Isn’t college football scheduling fun?  Oh well, this should be a good game, and a potential Pac-12 Pew-Pew-Pew game that doesn’t involve Washington State.

Indiana at Ohio State (Noon, ABC/TSN4) – Three in a fucking row!  I hope the Hoosiers are in contention for the New Year’s Six since this is a gauntlet of a mid-season schedule for this team.  Get through this section with only one loss and many will have to look out for this squad.  If I have to pick the game they would most likely lose it’s this one and only because it’s at the Horseshoe, an underrated atmosphere in college football.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Kentucky at Tennessee (Noon, specialty pack) – So which of these teams will actually be considered a contender at this point in the SEC East?  Recent history tells us that the winner of this game will still be in a spot to win the SEC East.  That may sound hilarious to some but Kentucky was in contention for the division into November last year so you may not want to laugh quite yet.

Best Group of Five Game: BYU at Boise State (10:30, FloSports) – I was tempted to include this in the Other Important Games of the Week section but the Cougs aren’t quite there yet.  But the Fighting Sitakes always give the Broncos fits so as for late-night fare, this is almost must-see.  It means that you may have to stay up to watch.  I mean I will already but I watch games like San Jose State-New Mexico on ESPNU that doesn’t end until 2:30 in the morning so I may not be the best judge of all this.

Worst Power Five Game: Duke at Georgia Tech (Noon, specialty pack) – Oof.  Perfect for the ACC Network.  Hey did you hear about Grant Field, where the Ramblin’ Wreck play?  They are changing from natural grass to Turfgrass (or artificial turf, I can’t remember) for the first time in the stadium’s history.  This stadium is over a century old.  And why is this happening?  Because of the BTS concert that was slated to play there this summer (which has since been postponed).  BTS is a K-Pop group.  Korean pop music.  My daughter is a huge fan of them.  This is causing a stadium in college football’s heartland to change something significant about it.  Just crazy.  The times, they are a-changin’.

A mixed back this week.  Surprising to see a couple of average weeks in this part of the season but it is what it is.  But it’s still college football dammit so I will watch.  If I somehow get access to ESPN+ I might not eat, drink, or go to the bathroom for 14+ hours on college football Saturdays.  Maybe I should invest in adult diapers.

Finally (FINALLY!) I received my first preview magazine.  Got the Athlon one yesterday and hope to get Lindy’s and Street & Smith in the next couple weeks.  Problem comes with Indigo stores not open yet and all other stores that even carry magazines not having college football preview ones.  So until that changes (which it may this weekend) I will go through the Athlon one.  As for the Phil Steele magazine, I hope to be able to order it soon.  As of right now production of the magazine has slowed with office closures and COVID-19 restrictions (and also questions about the college football season itself).  I have heard that they will be finishing the magazine soon enough and shipping will begin in mid-July.  This is good since I don’t want to wait too long to find out who will win the battle to be UMass’s third-string left guard.

The CFL would have been starting tomorrow night if it weren’t for the pandemic.  So that means still no football to watch in any form until the potential start of the NFL preseason.  And now there is news that the preseason could be shortened from four games, the current total for all teams (except for the two teams that play in the Hall of Fame Game) to either three or two.  I am all for this since the preseason is always way too long.  I still believe every team should have one neutral-site game as well but they haven’t heeded my advice yet.  Enjoy the rest of your week, stay safe and healthy, and I will get the final post of this series up as soon as I can.

It’s time to see how I did on my 2019 college football predictions…hold your applause

The college football season has ended.  Grab the Kleenex, dab your eyes and blow your nose.  We are seven long months away from college football starting again.  I might actually watch a few spring games this time around only if there’s nothing else to watch.  The mock drafts will commence soon although I will not cover the Kreepy Kombine.  I don’t care what a player prefers on his pizza or what he would do if he wasn’t a college football player or whether his parents are swingers.  I would be very uncomfortable as a scout to ask this shit.  The CFL starts in late May again this year with their pre-season (May 24th to be exact).  I still don’t understand why the pre-season games aren’t all in neutral locations.  Grow the damn league for god’s sake.  Oh and the XFL starts soon.  We shall see how version 2.0 goes.  I think with the TV contracts they will be able to do what the AAF couldn’t…finish their first season.  Beyond that who knows.  If they can go two full seasons I would consider it at least a slight success.

Let’s get to the main event: my predictions and how I did.  I am assuming I did crappy but you never know until you reflect.  And if the reflection is bad, break the mirror.  Anyway, let’s go.

College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six

• My College Football Playoff Final Four was very close!
  • Clemson – Picked them #1 and they ended up #3 and undefeated.  God I’m good.  OK yes most people picked them in the CFP but still.
  • Oklahoma – I had them #2.  They were #4 so technically I am 2-for-2.  Again, this was another easy pick considering I thought no one would be close in the Big XII.
  • Alabama – I figured this was a no-brainer.  That’s what two losses will do to you as they didn’t even get into the New Year’s Six (although they weren’t too far out).
  • Michigan – Same deal as Bama had although it was less of a shoo-in with the Wolverines.  They ended up facing the Tide in the Citrus Bowl so not too bad but a little off with this pick.
• How about my New Year’s Six picks? Not as good.  Didn’t get a single bowl game fully correct.  Utah?  Should have been there but no.  Texas?  Nope.  Washington?  Nada.  Notre Dame?  Close but no cigar.  Syracuse?  Jesus Christ what was I thinking?
• I did have the Group of Five pick correct though as I had Memphis going to the Cotton Bowl.
• I had LSU, Oregon and Nebraska being just on the outside of the NY6 looking in but playing in good bowls. LSU was awesome, Oregon looks like they’re back being a Pac-12 power and I drank the Nebraska Kool-Aid.  Two out of three isn’t bad.

Heisman Trophy

• I had Trevor Lawrence and Tua Tagovailoa as my #1 and #2.  If Tua hadn’t got injured he would have finished higher.  Lawrence just didn’t have the greatest start to his season but ended strong.
• I didn’t have Joe Burrow on my list.  The only LSU player I had up there was Grant Delpit.  Major fail on my part.
• My picks were mostly bad.  I mean Sam Ehlinger at #4?  Jake Fromm at #6?  Adrian Martinez at #10?  Sweet Jesus.  I had Hurts at #5 and Fields at #8 so at least they were in my Top 10.  But no Chase Young.  Yikes.

Let’s Look at Some Bad Team Predictions

• Look, Army was supposed to be better and most thought they would be.  I will include it here but almost everyone made that goof.
• Western Kentucky was a bit of a revelation this season.  I figured they would fall to the basement again but Tyson Helton did a great job with the Hilltoppers, getting back to their high-octane offensive ways.
• Indiana was really good which is not what I said at the start of the year.  I have to apologize to the Hoosiers.  Maybe they are not just a basketball school anymore.
• I also need to apologize to P.J. Fleck.  He got the Golden Gophers to Row The Boat like he wanted them to.  I thought they would struggle just to get bowl-eligible.  Not even close there.
• North Texas was quite a bit worse than I thought they would be (I figured they would challenge for the division title).  Not good.  And they were home for the holidays.  An overall sad season for the Mean Green.
• Shawn Elliott is doing some great things at Georgia State.  Along with WKU they have to be considered the surprises of the season so I don’t feel too bad with my prediction here.
• What Billy Napier did at Louisiana this season was amazing.  He has brought the Ragin’ Cajuns back to prominence and solidified his spot as a good head coach.  I figured they would win the Sun Belt West but not by as much as they did.
• Nebraska.  Sweet Jesus they just can’t seem to get it together.  So Scott Frost isn’t quite the mastermind many thought he would be.
• Northwestern was tough to watch.  Like seriously tough to watch.  Last year they clinched the Big Ten West with like four weeks to go.  This year?  Brutal.
• I’m trying to remember why I had Troy so high up in the Sun Belt standings.  I have a feeling I didn’t think there would be a huge drop-off even though Neal Brown left for West Virginia.  I was wrong.
• Nice to see Oregon State have a decent year for the first time in what felt like forever.  One prediction I don’t feel too bad about since most had the Beavers at the bottom of the Pac-12 North.
• The Bay Area schools had way different years than I predicted.  Cal ended up being much better than my prediction and the Big Trees out at Stanford were much worse.  This is getting out of hand.  I wonder if the actual experts are this bad.
• Chris Klieman proved his mettle as a head coach as he had the Wildcats playing much better than many experts predicted.  Eight wins is no joke in the Little Apple.  At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
• Obviously that one terrible season last year was an aberration for Navy.  The Middies turned it around and quickly back into the double-digit win club.  I had them just bowl-eligible.
• SMU parlayed a hot start, and a win in the Iron Skillet game, to a primetime game on ABC and the best season in the Metroplex since the death penalty in the mid-80s.  I had them also just bowl-eligible.
• Jim Bob McElwain did wonders in Central Michigan with the Chippewas, getting them to the MAC Championship after a horrific year last season.  I didn’t think he’d turn it around that quick.
• I really have to just take my Air Force predictions every year and give them an extra win or two since I am always off with them.
• Well the Jeff Tedford shine wore off in the valley with Fresno State.  I thought he would almost bring them to another conference championship game.
• It is nice to see Hawaii do well.  Will be interesting to see how well they do with Nick Rolovich off to Wazzu.
• Don’t get me started with Syracuse and Florida State and Miami.

Let’s Look at Some Good Team Predictions

• I’ve already discussed Oklahoma and Clemson.  I also did well with my Memphis, Ohio State and Georgia predictions, even though I thought the Tigers would run the table.
• I figured Tennessee would be back in bowl season this year and I was right on the mark.
• Boise State, despite being an easy pick, was a good prediction on my part.  I will ignore the fact that almost everyone had them winning the Mountain West.
• Did not take the bait about NC State being awesome this year.  They were quite good but I still figured them third in the ACC Atlantic.
• Oregon and Utah pretty much dominating the Pac-12 this season.  Who called it?  This guy…OK you might not be able to see it but I was pointing at myself.
• Kansas only winning three games.  I use this example every year.
• I nailed the AAC East pretty much dead-on.  Only real difference was UCF and Cincinnati being switched in the top two spots.
• And of course Appalachian State being pretty close to the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six.  Then again, EVERYONE thought that.

Coaching Hot Seat Fun-Time Extravaganza

• How the fuck does UConn justify keeping Randy Edsall?  My guess is along with the ridiculous bonuses he gets for getting three first downs in a quarter or leading after one quarter or not shitting his pants, he has a clause that says he is paid a bajillion dollars if he is fired before his contract is up.
• From the rest of the top five, only one remains and I understand why.  Other than one awesome season like a decade ago, Ball State has been brutal in football.  I didn’t figure Mike Neu would be able to turn this around but he has.  They were almost bowl-eligible and were battling for the MAC West title up until the final two weeks.  The rest of the coaches…yeah, no surprise they are all gone.
• Bob Davie gone in New Mexico.  No surprise there since I think everyone there was getting sick of his shit, especially the players.  That only works when you win.  When you lose, being a hard-ass never works.  And Charlie Strong is also gone.  He was fired at USF for basically getting worse every season since he started there.  We will see him again in the next couple years I’m sure.
• Philip Montgomery somehow got a stay of execution at Tulsa.  I think part of this is the fact that who wants to go to coach at Tulsa?
• My Doubtful Shitcanning list, yet again, had a few guys who had pretty good to great years.  Mike Bloomgren did what I didn’t think he could do…win a game at Rice this season (they actually won three).  Gus Malzahn’s Auburn Tigers beat Alabama and almost got to the New Year’s Six.  And Lovie Smith did unreal things at a woebegone program at Illinois and put them in a bowl game this season so yes, I was very wrong with him since he defied logic and has this program headed in the right direction.
• As for the rest of that section, I am a bit surprised Matt Luke was fired since I didn’t think Ole Miss did that bad this season.  Also Brent Brennan is probably off the hot seat list after his work at San Jose State.

So again I decided to compare myself to the Stassen method of pre-season predictions.  Every single year…I don’t know why I subject myself to this but I am always curious as to how I stand compared to real experts who truly study the game and don’t do this on the side…meaning it’s their actual job.  So…using specialized computer software (it’s an app called Calculator), my score was calculated as (drum roll)…

134.

A little bit better than this year.  So where did I land among the experts?  I tied The Sporting News!  Nice!  Problem is they were 14th out of 19.  But at least I wasn’t at the bottom.  So suck it all you lesser predictors!

I am going to consider this season a quasi-success for me.  Mostly because I have low expectations for my predictions.  But since I am talking about my predictions and how good they were, you know what this means…college football is so far away now.  218 days away.  Good god.  How am I going to shirk all Saturday responsibilities now?

Super Bowl is this Sunday.  No I did not watch the Pro Bowl at all.  I don’t even know who won.  I was more immersed in the tragic Kobe Bryant story than anything else yesterday.  Anyway, I have not heard anything about changes to the broadcast info so all I can say is it is on FOX or CTV.  That’s it.

Alright what do we have to look forward to: Mock drafts.  I might do an XFL schedule.  I have the college basketball conference tournament schedule as well which is always a crapshoot when it comes to the specialty packs (although Bell and Rogers are much better now than they were a few years back with assuring games that were scheduled actually appear).  Alright have a great rest of the week folks!

Could it be? – Week 10 College Football TV Schedule

The NCAA decided, two days ago, to modify their rules about how players can make money off their name, image and likeness (NIL).  If you had said this would happen even a month or so ago I would have scoffed at the notion.  But once California passed a bill to allow collegiate athletes to make money off their NIL it felt like a matter of time where the NCAA would have to at least meet them halfway.  Whether they just let it be carte blanche or there will be some relatively strict rules doesn’t matter so much at this point.  It’s a step in the right direction.  Funny how SMU is in the Top 15 for the first time since before they got their death penalty for paying players.

What else does this mean?  Oh yes it will be happening soon: the return of the NCAA Football video games.  I will actually buy a new system to get this game.  I still love it on my PS3 and don’t play it near enough to be honest with you.  This is super exciting.  Sorry Doug Flutie Maximum Football.  Your stay at the top (so to speak) will be temporary and probably lost to history but hey, you gave it a shot, right?

We are now starting almost a month straight of FOOTBAW on every day!  Rejoice all you college football hooligans!  Normally I would say this is where the schedules become seriously stacked.  You might notice something different about this week’s schedule though…that it’s about as stacked as a single, sad pancake.  Let’s get to the schedule and examine this odd phenomenon (at least for college football).

Thursday

		US	Canada
Georgia Southern at #20 Appalachian State	8:00 PM
West Virginia at #12 Baylor	8:00 PM

Baylor tries to stay perfect with a below-average Mountaineers team coming to Waco.  Speaking of Mountaineers, App State also tries to stay undefeated and in the Group of Five race against rival Georgia Southern.  This is one of very few high points to the schedule.

Friday

		US	Canada
Princeton at Cornell	6:00 PM
Navy at UConn	8:00 PM

Technically this is football.  I guess you could be interested on how UConn’s defense handles Navy who is playing like Army was supposed to play this season (and vice versa).

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#14 Michigan at Maryland	Noon
Boston College at Syracuse	Noon
Northern Illinois at Central Michigan	Noon
NC State at #23 Wake Forest	Noon
Houston at UCF	Noon
Buffalo at Eastern Michigan	Noon
Nebraska at Purdue	Noon
UTSA at Texas A&M	Noon

Not a ton here as it really is the appetizer to the rest of the day which is I guess better but not amazing by any stretch of the imagination.  Big games for Nebraska and Wake Forest but for slightly different reasons.  UB-EMU could end up being the surprise great early game.  Other than that, it’s football and that’s all that counts at this point.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Virginia Tech at #16 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
Miami at Florida State	3:30 PM
Rutgers at Illinois	3:30 PM
#6 Florida vs. #8 Georgia (in Jacksonville)	3:30 PM
Army at Air Force	3:30 PM
TCU at Oklahoma State	3:30 PM
Arkansas State at ULM	3:30 PM
#22 Kansas State at Kansas	3:30 PM
UTEP at North Texas	3:30 PM
Wofford at #4 Clemson	4:00 PM
Tulsa at Tulane	4:00 PM
#9 Utah at Washington	4:00 PM
Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech	4:00 PM
Mississippi State at Arkansas	4:00 PM
Oregon State at Arizona	4:30 PM

Now this gets good.  The Cocktail Party!  Another four games involving a ranked team.  Plus Pitt and Georgia Tech in the crazy ACC Coastal.  Makes for quite a good afternoon slate which I won’t call great because it isn’t.  OSU-UA, MSU-Arkansas and Arkansas State-ULM (which somehow gets on to ESPNU) aren’t exactly must-watch.  Considering we are into November now, these are not really the kinds of games that would even come close to highlighting anything.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#17 Cincinnati at East Carolina	7:00 PM
Ole Miss at #11 Auburn	7:00 PM
UAB at Tennessee	7:00 PM
Northwestern at Indiana	7:00 PM
#15 SMU at #24 Memphis	7:30 PM
Virginia at North Carolina	7:30 PM
Vanderbilt at South Carolina	7:30 PM
#7 Oregon at USC	8:00 PM

If it wasn’t for SMU-Memphis which, at this point, could be a candidate for game of the year if it comes close to past AAC big games, the primetime timeslot wouldn’t be as good as the afternoon timeslot which seems to be happening with more and more regularity. Oregon-USC should be a good one as this could be the game that gives Clay Helton his safety into next season (and perhaps continues to destroy the Pac-12’s College Football Playoff chances.  Don’t sleep on UAB-Tennessee as that could be VERY interesting.  UVA-UNC is a big ACC (Crazy) Coastal Division matchup.  Despite all I’ve said here, though, it is still one of the weaker primetime skeds of the season.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Colorado at UCLA	9:00 PM
BYU at Utah State	10:00 PM
#21 Boise State at San Jose State	10:30 PM
New Mexico at Nevada	10:30 PM

Any big games here?  No.  But Boise State has to not trip up against a surprisingly decent SJSU team.  The other games are college football games so I will watch them as well and get less sleep than I should going into Sunday morning.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (3:30, CBS) – The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party!  They should have Uncle Verne come back to help out in the booth even it’s for just part of the game.  Or they could do what I have said they should do: have an open bar in the booth.  Drunk Gary Danielson?  Think of the ratings!  Anyway, the winner here has basically clinched the SEC East since no other team is close to these two.  Should be electric in the home of the Jag-You-Ares.

SMU at Memphis (7:30, ABC) – I love to see these American Conference games in primetime on ABC.  It usually means it’s a game that will probably be the biggest piece of the Group of Five race for the New Year’s Six spot.  Also, it’s SMU.  SMU!  Really this shouldn’t be happening but the Mustangs have surprised everyone and now get the biggest national spotlight since…well you know.  Don’t sleep on Memphis either.  They were my pick for the New Year’s Six and other than a terrible loss to Temple and a surprisingly tough win over Tulsa, they have looked damn good.  They could actually put Appalachian State into the driver’s seat if they can defeat the Stangs here.

Oregon at USC (8:00, FOX) – Oregon at #7.  Are we back to the Oregon Ducks of old?  Who knows but I would honestly consider this a speed bump game for Oregon as we don’t know which USC will show up.  Considering what these two teams can be like, don’t be surprised if the game is going on after midnight (which is official Pac-12 After Dark time).  As I say almost every week, the favourite here (Oregon) losing would be disastrous to the conference’s (Pac-12) CFP chances, which may be in the negative at this point anyway.

Virginia Tech at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC) – NBC going with the classic 2:30 start time for this one to give it more of a spotlight.  Smart move.  The Hokies are just outside the Top 25 which is surprising until you realize they are 5-2 and have been playing pretty good.  Justin Fuente’s hot seat is now a lot less hot and the last chapter of the Bud Foster story might actually end up being great.  A second straight loss here by the Irish could spell trouble for Brian Kelly as the rumours are hot and heavy that Urban Meyer might be hired to bring Touchdown Jesus back to glory.  Wouldn’t that just piss off all the Fighting Irish haters?

Georgia Southern at Appalachian State (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – When has a Sun Belt game ever been in my top five games of the week?  I don’t feel like looking so I will just say never.  Depending on what happens in the second best game of the week, this could end up being hugely important in the whole Group of Five rankings.  I don’t see the Mountaineers losing this one but Georgia Southern has given them fits in the past so don’t put it past them to knock App State out of the ranks of the undefeated.  Plus it’s Halloween night so let’s say it could be a weird night to start this week of college football.

Honourable mention: NC State at Wake Forest (Noon, TSN1); Kansas State at Kansas (yes, the battle for Kansas and it goes off at 3:30, FloSports); Utah at Washington (4:00, FOX).

Some gambling fun and games

How about my Michigan over Notre Dame pick!  And my Florida State over Syracuse pick!  Just ignore most of the rest of my picks last week though.  But hey we are on to a new week with new picks so let’s do this!

Notre Dame over Virginia Tech

NC State over Wake Forest (upset number one!)

Appalachian State over Georgia Southern

Kansas State over Kansas

Georgia over Florida (upset number two!)

Oregon over USC

Washington over Utah (upset number three!)

Memphis over SMU (upset number four?)

Eastern Michigan over Buffalo (upset number five!)

Tennessee over UAB

Illinois over Rutgers

Thursday Night Football is upon us again and hey this could be pretty good.  San Francisco at Arizona.  I am very interested to see if the Niners can get to 8-0 which would be something special.  The execs at FOX have to be super happy to get an up-and-coming Cardinals team against a really good San Fran team.  FOX (and I guess the NFL Network) have got a pretty darn good schedule this year for Thursday Night Football.  Honestly, Monday Night Football is the one thing I don’t watch nearly as much anymore.  If they took it off the air, I don’t think I would miss it.  Crazy I know but it rarely has good games anymore.  I would say “Poor ESPN” but it’s ESPN so no.

I, as per usual, will be on Twitter this Saturday although I have to take breaks throughout the day.  I am showing my age.  But I do enjoy interacting with people online and it adds to the day of watching 14+ hours of college football (which may or may not require some caffeine assistance).  I try my best to not get into online arguments because people who are willing to go into full argument mode are not ones to even debate because you can’t win a debate against an idiot.   Enjoy the games everyone!

PONY UP! – Week 6 College Football Recap

It’s like 1982 all over again!

If you don’t know much about the history of SMU and the Southwest Conference, then let’s take a trip down memory lane.  Back to the early to mid-80s.  The days of Eric Dickerson (who definitely didn’t know about any improprieties…sure), hooker killer Craig James and a merry band of insane boosters.  The days when the Mustangs of Southern Methodist University were the toast of the Southwest Conference (along with Texas of course).  Then came the NCAA and they came down hard on the school giving them the only football death penalty ever given.  What it did to the football program was catastrophic.  It has taken them over three decades to return to being a contender of sorts.  But it finally has come.  They came into their home game with Tulsa ranked in the Top 25 for the first time since 1982.  So how did they start?  By going down 30-9 after three quarters to an average-at-best Golden Hurricane team.  Ouch.

Then one of the best comebacks in recent memory occurred.  The Mustangs scored three straight touchdowns to force overtime.  Both teams scored touchdowns in the first overtime.  Then SMU fumbled and Tulsa recovered.  All they had to do was get a field goal and they win.  Instead they fail to gain a yard and a kicker who had never kicked a field goal in a college football game missed just wide left to send the game to triple overtime.  There, Tulsa was stopped again and James Proche caught a Shane Buechele pass in the corner of the end zone for the TD and to finish the wild comeback.  Things are hopping in Dallas right now and there is some serious New Year’s Six chatter following this team.  Good to see a team who has struggled for decades finally put it all together.

As for the rest of the weekend it was…technically college football.  A couple more really good games but for the most part it wasn’t the greatest week of college football I have watched.  Closer to the worst to be honest.  Let’s get down to recapping all this shall we?

And now for the rest of the recap

• A great game down in Gainesville this past weekend.  Florida won over Auburn in a game many would call an upset.  I would kind of agree since up until this point the Tigers looked like a great team and Florida looked like a very overrated Top 10 team.  Instead the Gators gutted out a win and now their Cocktail Party game against Georgia could have massive implications.  As for the ol’ Gus Bus, it was a flat tire for sure.  The bus needs some work and wasn’t roadworthy on Saturday.  They have a fairly difficult rest of the schedule so games like that can’t be repeated if they are looking at a NY6 spot.
• Another kinda sorta upset type of thing on Friday night.  Cincinnati held on to beat UCF in front of a raucous home crowd.  For a while it looked like the Knights would pull away and get back to being in the New Year’s Six conversation.  Problem is, the Fighting Fickells wouldn’t go away.  If it wasn’t for UC’s defense (in the second half) and the running of Michael Warren II, the Bearcats probably wouldn’t have been close.  I was right with my pick so now I wonder if UCF can even get back into the NY6 talk.  I say no.
• How about that game down in south Florida?  Miami was way down to Virginia Tech, 28-7 going into the second half.  They came all the way back only to gack the game away in the end.  The ACC Coastal is a mess, let’s be honest.  Other than Virginia, no team seems to want to be on top.  So knowing how things are going, we can expect Pitt to somehow win the division.
• Speaking of Pitt, they almost allowed Duke to come back from down 23 points in the third quarter.  It felt like the Pittening was about to happen.  The Panthers were able to hold on as they continue to confound media pundits who can’t get a true read on this team.
• Louisville beat Boston College.  Seriously.  I watched none of it since I couldn’t find the ending of the damn game.  Louisville could be good again.  That seems shocking.  Also, I think the end of the line is coming for Mister Dudes Being Dudes, Steve Addazio.  The fanbase is fine with winning seven games every year and not coming close to contending for a division title.  But winning four games is unacceptable goddamit.
• Let history show that the Tennessee football Volunteers led Georgia 14-13 in a game in 2019. I know that UGA scored the last thirty points of the game but for a bit, the Vols were competitive.  It was nice to see.  Now we have to wonder if Jeremy Pruitt will survive to the next decade.  I’m skeptical.  Good ol’ Rocky Bottom.
• I thought Michigan State could keep it close.  I really did.  This Buckeyes team looks like it could be more dominant than any of Urban Meyer’s squads.  Justin Fields has pushed his way into the Heisman conversation and the whole offense just looks overwhelming.  I mean don’t get me wrong: I could probably coach this team to bowl eligibility.  But Ryan Day is doing something special in Columbus and it could lead to a spot in the College Football Playoff if things keep going this way.
• Texas kind of struggled with the Mountaineers of West Virginia.  Not a good look for the Longhorns that’s for sure.  Whether anyone can even approach the Sooners in the Big XII (they beat Kansas pretty thoroughly) is up in the air but it doesn’t look to be the case.  The Big XII has basically become Oklahoma and nine other teams.
• For a while, the Cal-Oregon game was resembling last year’s Cheez-It Bowl.  A hilariously poor showing of football in all facets.  I mean Oregon pulled it out in the end but geez they didn’t actually look that great.  The Pac-12 is a bit of a dumpster fire at this point.
• P.J. Fleck is Rowing That God Damn Boat in Minneapolis.  The Gophers are 5-0 and look like they will probably be 8-0 when they get into November.  I find it interesting that this team is STILL not in the Top 25 and are getting no CFP chatter.  This team could be one of the most underrated teams in recent memory and they may shock a few teams along the way.
• In yet another upset, Texas Tech PEW! PEW! PEWed their way over Oklahoma State.  It was a fun game that had no shortage of offense and shows that the Big XII mid-card is rather strong.
• What is Washington’s deal with Stanford?  They looked great last week against USC and then can’t do anything against an average Cardinal team.  It’s yet another nail in the Pac-12’s CFP coffin.  And it’s early October.  Good lord.
• Back to speaking about games that resembled the Cheez-It Bowl.  Michigan beat Iowa 10-3 in an absolute snoozer…unless you love punting.  If you love punting this was the game for you.  This was so awful to watch and really does not show either team in a good light going forward.  One of these teams is going to somehow end up in the New Year’s Six, I just know it.
• USF’s game against UConn was moved to Noon thanks to a mosquito-borne infection of sorts in the Hartford/Storrs area.  Only at UConn.  Anyway, it was supposed to be live on CBS Sports Network at 7:00 and instead went to the website with a tape delayed broadcast at 7.  How many people watched this rebroadcast?  Did it even hit triple digits?  They should have just ran a long version of their highlights show, Inside College Football.
• Finally, Tulane took down Army.  So now you have to include the Green Wave (of all teams) in the Group of Five conversation.  Who knows if they can actually crack the top tier but Willie Fritz has to be commended for taking what was mostly a woebegone program and has steered it in the right direction.

Not the most amazing weekend, not gonna lie.  We need a seriously crazy weekend of college football so even at 2 in the morning I am still wide awake because I can’t believe what has happened in the previous 14 hours.

Alright, let’s now look at the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Alabama
#2	Ohio State
#3	Georgia
#4	Florida
#5	Clemson
#6	LSU
#7	Notre Dame
#8	Oklahoma
#9	Wisconsin
#10	Penn State
#11	Texas
#12	Auburn
#13	Michigan
#14	Oregon
#15	Boise State
#16	Utah
#17	Virginia
#18	Iowa
#19	Arizona State
#20	Wake Forest
#21	Texas A&M
#22	SMU
#23	Baylor
#24	Missouri
#25	Minnesota

Yes there are some differences between my rankings and the AP Poll.  I have Ohio State at #2 and Clemson down at #5.  Clemson will definitely move up as at least one of the teams above them lose.  As for #6 through #9, pick the teams out of a hat to figure out the order.  A lot can happen the rest of the way and at this point, no one team is that much better than another.  Yes I have Minnesota at #25.  I know the AP Poll doesn’t have them in there but man they deserve to be there in my humble opinion.  Also, yes I have Missouri at #24.  It sounds like they won’t be bowling this year but still, they are playing well.  Of course this year, of all years, they are under sanctions.  Bad luck.

Hey guess what we have?  FUN BELT!  Yes, weekday Sun Belt action is back and it starts on Wednesday night.  8:00 but only on the specialty pack.  And it’s a big one.  Appalachian State and Louisiana.  I love weekday football.  Honestly, and I know I rail on the NFL being on Thursday but between late August and early January, the more football the better.  Have a good week everyone!

Wait a second…THAT’S REALIGNMENT’S MUSIC! *cue NWO theme*

Yes we have some realignment news…wait, don’t run away!  Yes realignment was done to death a few years back and especially with the Big XII Deal Or No Deal type expansion process.  I get it.  However, it’s the reality of college sports, especially at the football level.  But this time around it is more geared towards the basketball end of things.  In the end though, it will effect football (potentially) in a myriad of ways.  So let’s begin.

The Mountain West wants Gonzaga.  There, I said it.  Gonzaga has dominated the West Coast Conference better than any team has dominated their conference in college basketball ever.  Period.  They are the West Coast Conference basically.  So let’s be honest: the Zags are leaving the WCC for the MWC.  Whether that happens for the next season I don’t know but they have three months to decide (and will probably want to do it before then).  The Mountain West is also talking to some other schools to see if they should expand further.  One school that may or may not be in this mix (depending on what you read) is BYU.  Ah, the Cougars.  Independence looked great for them.  They were a solid #2 behind Notre Dame in college football’s Independent ranks up until recently.  Now, Army may have reached their level (debatable) or BYU has dropped below them (also debatable).  Either way you slice it, BYU’s football has taken a downward trend recently.  But the rest of their sports are in the WCC.  This is where this all really comes into play.  BYU might not want to be stuck in the WCC without Gonzaga (and potentially Saint Mary’s who may also be getting a look).  The WCC without Gonzaga is not a good conference.  At least now.  It may be a decade from now but not now.  So would BYU want to go back to the Mountain West?  Here seems to be the options for BYU:

1. Stay as a college football independent and in the WCC for basketball (and all other sports).  Being an independent is hard these days, especially with the New Year’s Six not giving them access to the G5 spot (which sounds like mid-major porn).  They would be a big fish in a much smaller WCC pond but could continue to struggle with football.
2. Go back to the MWC in football only and keep all other sports in the WCC.  They might prefer this option but will the Mountain West accept that or force BYU’s hand.  All or nothing?
3. All.  Everything back to the Mountain West.

In my opinion, I believe BYU has to swallow its pride and at least discuss a return to the Mountain West, even if it’s just for football.  Otherwise they will be stuck out in no-man’s-land so to speak with no bowl tie-ins and no NY6 possibilities.  The other issues that come up with this are the potential for UTEP and New Mexico State to also join the MWC.  If that’s the case, they would have their 14 football schools and wouldn’t need BYU.  At that point, BYU would have to be paired with yet another football school for it to make sense for the Mountain West.  Somewhat confusing but hopefully soon enough (maybe as early as the Final Four) we will get more news on this…at least it pertains to Gonzaga.  Then the dominoes can fall in some way after that.

Now this whole realignment talk makes me look back at a subject I have wanted to tackle for a while and never did until now because it’s a lengthy one.  Yep, it’s another What-if Post!  This time: What if the Southwest Conference never disbanded?  Oof.  Alright then.

The math here is basically 2+2=5 but no matter.  The Big 8 invited four members of the old SWC to form the Big XII.  That’s what we know.  But the entire demise started way before that.  Really it begins in the 80s and peaks with the death penalty given to SMU.

That penalty (which, let’s be honest, should have either not been given as harshly or been given to a few other programs in recent memory) essentially killed the Southwest Conference.  It just took another decade to finally bury the corpse.  So let’s say SMU doesn’t get the death penalty but a fairly harsh one.  Enough that it makes for a difficult 1987 and puts the other conference teams on notice.  What this wouldn’t have done is keep Arkansas.  The SEC wanted to expand as soon as the Big Ten was making a play for Penn State.  And Arkansas was one of the six options for SEC expansion and pretty much at the top of the list.  So Arkansas is gone and the SWC is down to 8 teams.  Making the conference stronger, however, could have done one of two things:

1. Kept these eight together for a long time with perhaps an expansion or two in the decade or two following, or
2. Had the best from the SWC merge with the best of the Big 8 to create a conference but probably not with 12 teams or not in the way they ended up merging in the first place.

So let’s be perfectly honest here: there is no way they keep the eight they had unless they expand heavily since Rice was never going to be able to compete (and never really did being the Vanderbilt of the group and that is even stretching it).  SMU is another story.  Since they are in the Metroplex, I think the lack of death penalty would have at least kept them competitive for bowl games for a while.  And remember: at various times, Baylor and Houston were Top 25 teams in the decade after the death penalty occurred.  So let’s say they expand.  The question is when and where.  This is when it becomes super complicated.

So probably through 1996, everything happens the way it would have.  The big realignment of 1997 would not have happened…at least at this point; however, it would have been a matter of time before the SWC did something since they knew with the way TV contracts were going, having such a small conference footprint would have been the death of the conference eventually.  What they would have done is two-fold.  First, get rid of the dead-weight schools.  Rice would have been a goner.  No way they can continue to compete.  Plus with Houston already in the conference, they have that area covered.  One of TCU or SMU is probably also gone.  You can make a case for either one to stay but both couldn’t stay because really the Metroplex barely needed one major conference team so two would have been out of the question.  So let’s drop SMU for this exercise.  That leaves this:

• Texas
• Texas A&M
• TCU
• Baylor
• Houston
• Texas Tech

Honestly…not bad.  In the late 90s would have been the time to be aggressive before some former WAC-offs decided to meet in a (probably) sleazy Motel 6 and start a new conference.  So the choices to join the new “super-sized” Southwest Conference would have been:

• BYU.  Yes it’s not southwest in any sense but BYU at the time was still a hot ticket for football.
• Tulane.  To keep that (somewhat) southwest feel by including a state that is beside Texas.
• New Mexico and UTEP.  I think these two would have been kind of joined at the hip at this point.
• Wyoming and Colorado State.  This is more of the bridge (of sorts) from Texas to BYU through these two schools.

A fairly decent conference that probably would have seen at least two of these teams (BYU and one other) become fairly prominent Power Five-like football teams.  It also keeps the Big Eight from doing anything and pushes the WAC and Big West, possibly, into some sort of unholy alliance.  I also believe this would have kept some conferences’ footprints (I am looking straight at you WAC) from getting totally out of hand…at least until ESPN came along and threw a bunch of money at someone and we then have San Diego State to the Big East or something else as foolish.  Otherwise, this probably turns out better for many schools involved.  So this is what it would look like as of the start of the new millennium for the effected conferences (I excluded the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, MAC, Pac-10 and SEC since they would not have changed from what they were before the 2000 season):

SWC	WAC	Conference USA	Big West	Big 8
Texas	Air Force	Louisville	Boise State	Kansas State
Texas A&M	UNLV	East Carolina	Utah State	Nebraska
Texas Tech	Utah	Cincinnati	Idaho	Iowa State
Houston	San Diego State	Southern Miss	New Mexico State	Colorado
Baylor	Fresno State	UAB	North Texas	Kansas
TCU	San Jose State	Memphis	Arkansas State	Missouri
BYU	Tulsa	Army		Oklahoma
Tulane	Rice			Oklahoma State
New Mexico	Hawaii
UTEP	SMU
Wyoming	Nevada
Colorado State

That’s…that’s quite a bit different than what actually happened.  I honestly wouldn’t know what to do with the WAC and Big West at this point.  My guess is, potentially a few years later, the Big 8 or SWC would pick up two members and force these conferences to merge.  Also remember that the Sun Belt was on the brink of sponsoring football at the Division 1-A level in a couple of years which would provide a whole other wrinkle.  In the end, the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC would look at this and stay as far away as possible (for the time being).  OK so maybe realignment isn’t so bad…sometimes.  I’m lying…it almost always sucks these days.

Alright we are done with that.  That post was kind of long and meandered a bit.  In the end I think I determined the Southwest Conference deserved to die.  Don’t know why though.  All I know is it may have caused less problems by dissolving.  Next up will be my final mock draft sometime in April.  Then it’s the actual draft and I can start posting semi-regularly again.  Ugh I hate this time of year.  Enjoy your short work week everyone!

Drum roll please…….It’s time for another What-If Post! Is this mic on?

Let’s take a look at what I can blog about:

1. The upcoming NFL draft.  Well, I will do at least four mock drafts and want to spread them out.  I mean it’s a little less than two months away from the draft and it’s not like Josh Allen will fall from surefire first rounder to out of the draft.  Unless he does something really bad.  And even then…
2. Spring games.  Not a chance.  I think these are dumb anyway.
3. Off-season NFL news.  Why?  I don’t care which player said something smart, which one said something dumb, which one beat his wife, which one had his wife beat him…I don’t care.
4. News from the CFL, CIS (U Sports), arena football, etc.  Also, not a chance.

So I have to come up with something so I don’t let this blog go dormant or hibernate like a grizzly bear.  So I figured it’s time for another What-If post.  You know, the ones where I don’t do too much research, yet still come to a conclusion that seems reasonably respectable so let’s begin.

This time around I will be doing a trio of what-if scenarios about the two graphics above: the College Football Playoff and the New Year’s Six.  I will look into what would have happened if this setup had been around for three of the strangest seasons of college football in my lifetime: 1984, 1990 and 2007.  I will have to take some liberties with some of the tie-ins but will use the same rotation that is in use now for the bowl games (i.e. 2014 had Rose and Sugar as semis so 30 years previous to it would have been the same because of the 3-year rotations).

1984

This is the year that BYU (yes, THAT BYU) was crowned national champion.  The only undefeated and untied team left in the nation won it by default.  I was only 6 at the time so knew none of this but I can guarantee if this had happened even ten years later, the outcry would have been huge…and this is pre-internet by quite a few years.  The Cougs had a somewhat easy schedule that year, looked dominant throughout most of the season, but then struggled and just got by a not-so-good Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl to clinch the title.  Yep…the Holiday Bowl.

So if the CFP and NY6 existed back then, this is what we would have seen (and of course I will use AP Poll rankings since even the BCS was a decade-and-a-half away at this point):

Rose Bowl (Semi-Final #1): #1 Brigham Young (12-0) vs. #4 Washington (10-1)

Sugar Bowl (Semi-Final #2): #2 Oklahoma (9-1-1) vs. #3 Florida (9-1-1)

Orange Bowl (Big 8 champ vs. at-large): #5 Nebraska (9-2) vs. #6 Ohio State (9-2) – Nebraska in here because Oklahoma in CFP

Fiesta Bowl (at-large vs. at-large): #11 LSU (8-2-1) vs. #12 Maryland (8-3)

Cotton Bowl: (SWC champ vs. at-large): #10 SMU (9-2) vs. #9 Oklahoma State (9-2)

Peach Bowl (at-large vs. at-large): #7 South Carolina (10-1) vs. #8 Boston College (9-2)

As you can see the Big Eight was pretty stacked at the top (3 teams in the top 9).  This is also pre-death penalty SMU we are talking about so they had the Pony Express in full force here.  Finally, I don’t know how I could include a “Group of Five” representative since they wouldn’t come close to being in the Top 25.  I guess if you want to include a mid-major that works but in this case that would be BYU.  Problem solved!

There is no rating system I can find that goes back that far (Sagarin ratings started in 2000 from what I can see) but I can take a good guess is to what probably would have happened in that first semi-final.  I have a feeling we get a Washington-Oklahoma championship with this setup.  Some interesting games also in the NY6.  South Carolina-Boston College would be one of two programs having program-defining years.  Either way, we wouldn’t have a BYU championship and chances are BYU would be in the Mountain West right now instead of thinking they are the Notre Dame of the west or something like that.

1990

OK 1984 was a pretty easy fix.  1990 was a different story altogether though.  It ended up with Colorado and Georgia Tech splitting the national championship.  This despite the fact Colorado won the Fifth Down Game over Missouri, five different teams had been in the #1 spot by Thanksgiving and one of those was Virginia of all teams.  And Georgia Tech was never #1 in the AP Poll at any time of the season even though they were the only unbeaten team in the land (no team was unbeaten AND untied).  They were the Coaches Poll pick to win the title by only three first place votes over Colorado where, again, they were never #1 (until that final poll).  Phew!  OK let’s get to how the games would have looked.

Rose Bowl (Semi-Final #1): #1 Colorado (10-1-1) vs. #4 Miami (9-2)

Sugar Bowl (Semi-Final #2): #2 Georgia Tech (10-0-1) vs. #3 Texas (10-1)

Orange Bowl (Big 8 champ vs. at-large): #20 Oklahoma (8-3) vs. #6 Florida State (9-2)

Fiesta Bowl (at-large vs. at-large): #5 Notre Dame (9-2) vs. #8 Washington (9-2)

Cotton Bowl (SWC champ vs. at-large): #9 Houston (10-1) vs. #12 Michigan (8-3)

Peach Bowl (at-large vs. at-large): #7 Penn State (9-2) vs. #10 Tennessee (8-2-2)

Yikes.  You have a team that lost 2 and tied 2 in a New Year’s Six bowl.  Yes this was a year where everyone seemed to beat up on everyone else.  It was basically survival of the fittest at this point.  To be honest, I could see Texas and Miami pulling off the wins here and playing for the national championship.  So in this scenario, we would have seen, possibly, the first two-loss champion (years before LSU pulled it off).  I think any year going forward having a 2-loss team in the CFP is a recipe for disaster (although it may keep the 8-team playoff people at bay).  Again, the whole G-5 representative thing doesn’t work here considering there were still so many independents at this time.

2007

Alright this is the year where seemingly no team wanted to win the national championship.  Like it was kryptonite.  LSU won with two losses.  Kansas was the only BCS team with less than two losses at all.  Kansas.  And yes, seven #2 ranked teams lost that season.  So absurd yet so exciting!  So it wasn’t long ago that it was strange times in college football.  Anyway, let’s see how this shitshow would have looked (after the Grey Goose company ran out of vodka to give The Committee members):

Peach Bowl (Semi-Final #1): #1 Ohio State (11-1) vs. #4 Oklahoma (11-2)

Fiesta Bowl (Semi-Final #2): #2 LSU (11-2) vs. #3 Virginia Tech (11-2)

Rose Bowl (Pac-10 champ vs. Big Ten champ): #7 USC (10-2) vs. #13 Illinois (9-3) – Illinois in here because Ohio State in CFP

Sugar Bowl (Big XII champ vs. SEC champ): #6 Missouri (11-2) vs. #5 Georgia (10-2) – Missouri & Georgia in here because Oklahoma & LSU in CFP

Orange Bowl (ACC champ vs. at-large): #14 Boston College (10-3) vs. #10 Hawaii (12-0)

Cotton Bowl (at-large vs. at-large): #9 West Virginia (10-2) vs. #8 Kansas (11-1)

What a gongshow.  At least we can put in the G-5 representative since the BCS made sure of that as well.  This feels a lot like 1984 at least in terms of how it played out here.  One undefeated team only.  At least this time they were ranked much lower than 23 years previous.

Anyway, when you have teams like Illinois, Missouri, Boston College and Kansas in prestigious bowls you know something CRAZY has happened.  To have one or two fine.  Any team can have a program-defining year.  But to have four (or even five if you include Hawaii)?  That’s nuts.  At least now we have ratings that could tell us who would win these games (using a pretty good rating system).  So here are your “winners”!

Peach: Oklahoma

Fiesta: LSU

Rose: USC

Sugar: Missouri

Orange: Boston College

Cotton: West Virginia

LSU is actually the highest rated team according to those ratings so would still end up champion.  With two losses. Second best team overall?  Kansas.  My god.

Alright well that was, uh, interesting I guess.  I wonder if someone has gone back and done a bunch of these recreations of the CFP in different years.  Probably not since just tailoring it to specific years seemed like a bit of a nightmare.  Poll n’ Bowl along with at least two dozen independent teams every year doesn’t make for easy bowl tie-ins.

I will wait for the Kreepy Kombine to finish up before doing my next mock draft.  Not that I am going to watch it.  I will just read up on any major changes.  The combine is weird and watching it makes me feel weird.  Enjoy the rest of your week and the weekend (unless the weather sucks).

Where we are headed in college football: Part 4

We are at the end of the scenarios.  The last one.  And arguably the most extreme.  The most predicated on what I believe should happen in a mostly ideal scenario.  I will be honest here: all this will not happen.  Saying that, some of these occurrences may happen but the idea that all of them could is probably a no-go.  I’ve seen many “fantasy” conference realignments in the past and many of them are not just improbable (like this one) but also completely dumb and may make no semblance of sense (unlike this one).  So let’s jump in, shall we?  Spoiler alert: this will be a long post.

Now we all know that there is a distinct divide between the Power Five and Group of Five conferences.  Some teams are wanting to sneak into the P5 whereas others are holding on for their Go5 lives.  Issues with the Big XII and ACC are going on almost every day.

Because of all this, I am implementing something fairly drastic.  First off, the top conferences will be on their own.  Their own bowls and they will be the only ones with access to the College Football Playoff.  The amount of teams in this “new” Power Five will increase so no real worries there.  It allows for more elite-on-elite games throughout the season than there is at this moment.  The amount of conferences in the top tier will be eight.  The biggest change will be the complete blow-up of the Big XII.  Welcome back the Big Eight and the Southwest Conference (golf clap).  As much as we hope Texas and Oklahoma want to play and get along and share the sandbox, they really don’t.  They want their own sandboxes or bigger portions of a conference sandbox.  So might as well split them up.  Yes they love their Red River Rivalry matchup but that’s where it ends really.

Here’s the new conference lineup, followed by the steps I took to get there:

SEC	Big Ten	Pac-10	ACC
Alabama	Ohio State	USC	Florida State
Florida	Wisconsin	Oregon	Miami
LSU	Michigan	Stanford	Clemson
Georgia	Notre Dame	UCLA	Georgia Tech
Auburn	Penn State	Oregon State	NC State
Tennessee	Michigan State	Arizona State	North Carolina
Texas A&M	Iowa	Washington	Wake Forest
South Carolina	Minnesota	California	East Carolina
Ole Miss	Purdue	Arizona	USF
Mississippi State	Northwestern	Washington State	UCF
Kentucky	Illinois		Duke
Vanderbilt	Indiana		Memphis
Big 8	SWC	American	Mountain West
Oklahoma	Texas	Virginia Tech	Boise State
Nebraska	TCU	West Virginia	Utah
Kansas State	Arkansas	Louisville	BYU
Oklahoma State	Texas Tech	Boston College	Air Force
Missouri	Baylor	Pittsburgh	Fresno State
Colorado	Houston	Virginia	North Dakota State
Iowa State	Tulsa	Maryland	Colorado State
Kansas	New Mexico	Cincinnati	San Diego State
	Rice	Syracuse	Nevada
	SMU	Marshall	Montana
	UTEP	Navy	Wyoming
	UTSA	Rutgers	Utah State
		Connecticut	San Jose State
		Temple	UNLV

Step-by-Step

I kind of wish I had those terrible IKEA characters to put in here…you know the ones that say lift in pairs, don’t lean certain things against a wall, and don’t stab yourself with the Allen key (or hex key for you people who just want to be insufferable cocks).

1. Split the Big XII into the Big 8 and the SWC. Oklahoma and Texas each get their own conferences now.
2. Re-create the Big Eight as it was before becoming the Big XII. I think it wouldn’t be a major issue to get Nebraska out of the Big Ten and Missouri out of the SEC if there wouldn’t be as much of a hit to their per-team revenue.
3. As for the SWC, all the old members are back except one: Texas A&M. I’m sure they’d rather crawl on broken glass while naked than go back into a conference with the Longhorns.  To fill out the conference (but keep the southwest feel), they invite New Mexico, UTEP, and UTSA.
4. The SEC loses Arkansas and Missouri but does not add replacements for them. Texas A&M isn’t as much of an outlier with LSU next door and now TV revenue is split only twelve ways.  The conference is not really hurt by this at all.
5. To replace Nebraska, the Big Ten grabs Notre Dame. As I’ve said before, Independent Football is probably all but dead with the next major round of realignment.
6. The Mountain West, now a “major” conference, gets Utah back from the Pac-12. Despite recent success, the Utes (along with Colorado) don’t seem like a program that will ever fully fit in with the Pac-whatever number it is.  The only way this would change is if they went on a sustained run of success.
7. The Pac-12, losing Utah and Colorado, go back to being called the Pac-10. All we need now is Keith Jackson calling their games on ABC and all will be right with the world.
8. The ACC and American also do a bit of a shuffle. The American becomes more of the northeast conference (think old Big East minus Miami) whereas the ACC goes south of Virginia.  Makes sense geographically.  So the ACC gets East Carolina, USF, UCF, and Memphis in exchange for Virginia Tech, Virginia, Boston College, Louisville, and Syracuse.
9. Maryland and Rutgers leave to go to the American. They were never a good fit in the B1G, markets be damned.
10. Also, the American picks up West Virginia who doesn’t belong in Big 8/SWC world anymore (and rightfully so).
11. To even things out, The American Conference takes the top team from Conference USA, Marshall who should get an instant boost by moving to a better conference.
12. Hey the Mountain West (along with The American) are joining the big boys! They get Utah back from the Pac, invite BYU, North Dakota State, and Montana and hopefully cash in at some point.

There you go, the top division (Power Eight?) are set.  Now we get to the CFP and bowl setup.  Here’s how it would look:

Bowl	Bowl Tie-In #1	Bowl Tie-In #2
CFP Championship	Orange Winner	Cotton Winner
Cotton Bowl	Fiesta Winner	Rose Winner
Orange Bowl	Peach Winner	Sugar Winner
Fiesta Bowl	CFP Poll #1	CFP Poll #8
Peach Bowl	CFP Poll #2	CFP Poll #7
Sugar Bowl	CFP Poll #3	CFP Poll #6
Rose Bowl	CFP Poll #4	CFP Poll #5
Outback Bowl	SEC #2	Big Ten #2
TaxSlayer Bowl	SEC #6	Big Ten #6
Citrus Bowl	SEC #4	Big Ten #4
Music City Bowl	SEC #3	ACC #3
Sun Bowl	Pac-10 #3	SWC #3
Liberty Bowl	SEC #5	ACC #4
Alamo Bowl	SWC #2	Big Eight #2
Belk Bowl	ACC #2	American #2
Texas Bowl	SWC #4	MWC #2
Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten #5	American #3
Cactus Bowl	Pac-10 #4	MWC #3
Holiday Bowl	Big Ten #3	Pac-10 #2
Armed Forces Bowl	Big Eight #3	American #4
Las Vegas Bowl	Big Eight #4	MWC #4

The bowl tie-ins are pretty easy to figure out.  Tried to go as regional as I possibly could.  The SEC and Big Ten received five actual tie-ins, the rest of the conferences got three.  As for the CFP, it has to be expanded to eight.  It’s going to be expanded anyway so why fight it.  They can’t go to sixteen since that would be ridiculous but eight probably will work (until the 8-seed wins the title and then all hell will break loose).  I bet you think “Oh, eight conferences, eight champions, right?”  WRONG!  Considering the strength of the conferences now, I have gone this route:

• The SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-10 champions get automatic berths.
• From the other five conferences, the top 2 conference champions also get automatic berths. This will be settled by the CFP ranking.
• The other three spots will be at-large choices.

This makes it so that if one conference (cough*SEC*cough) has two teams in the top four, the worst of the two won’t be penalized.

What does this all mean for our friends in Conference USA, the MAC, and the Sun Belt?  Well, they would form the new Tier Two (Group of Seven?  Wait, no that’s been used before…) that would look like so:

Conference USA	MAC	Sun Belt	Missouri Valley
Southern Miss	Toledo	Appalachian State	South Dakota State
Louisiana Tech	Northern Illinois	Troy	Youngstown State
UAB	Bowling Green	Arkansas State	Illinois State
Middle Tennessee	Northern Iowa	UL-Lafayette	Southern Illinois
Western Kentucky	Western Michigan	South Alabama	Western Illinois
Tulane	Miami-Ohio	ULM	South Dakota
North Texas	Ohio	Texas State	Missouri State
Florida Atlantic	Central Michigan	Georgia State	North Dakota
Old Dominion	Ball State	Furman	Indiana State
FIU	Army	Wofford
Charlotte	Akron	Coastal Carolina
Georgia Southern	Kent State	Jacksonville State
	Buffalo
	Eastern Michigan
Colonial	Big Sky	Southland
Villanova	Hawaii	McNeese State
James Madison	Eastern Washington	Central Arkansas
Massachusetts	Idaho	Sam Houston State
Richmond	New Mexico State	Stephen F. Austin
New Hampshire	Cal Poly	Northwestern State
Delaware	Northern Arizona	SE Louisiana
William & Mary	Montana State	Abilene Christian
Maine	Portland State	Lamar
Elon	UC-Davis	Nicholls State
Towson	Weber State	Incarnate Word
Rhode Island	Southern Utah	Houston Baptist
Albany	Sacramento State
Stony Brook	Idaho State
	Northern Colorado

Tulane and Hawaii move down from previous conferences since, well, they just wouldn’t fit in with the new money maker conferences.  Army is invited into the MAC and there are a few changes to the rest of the conferences (call-ups if you will).  This new tier will not have bowl games but will inherit the FCS Playoffs.  16 teams instead of 24.  I think it would work well with some better programs than they currently have now in the FCS (no five-in-a-row dynasty stuff then).

As for the new bottom tier of D-1, it consists of eight conferences where half of them don’t even compete in the playoffs.  The Ivy League doesn’t do the playoffs at all and the MEAC and SWAC do their own fun-time HBCU championship.  The other five conferences might as well join D-2 at this point.  To be honest, they are probably so low on the food chain that myself (along with a lot of others) wouldn’t care unless you were an alumnus of that school.

Alright, now to broadcasting info since this breaks into what my blog is all about (for the most part):

• CBS would still get the SEC game of the week.
• FOX would get either the Big Ten or Pac-10 game of the week.
• NBC, with Notre Dame going to the Big Ten, would probably get the ACC or American game of the week.
• ABC would get the Big Eight, SWC, or Mountain West game of the week.
• CBS would most likely show a doubleheader. With ESPN’s hold on the rest of SEC football, I see them picking up another conference, most likely the Big Eight or SWC.
• FOX would probably move to tripleheaders on the main network as long as they didn’t interfere with Major League Baseball. My best guess is they would have one Big Ten and one Pac-10 game and then one more from either conference.
• NBC would show a doubleheader I’m sure, with one game each from the ACC and American.
• ABC would get their normal tripleheader with the best game from the three conferences above getting the primetime 8:00 pm slot.
• ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, FOX Sports One, and FOX Sports Net would pick up most of the rest of the games (anywhere from 18-24 each week).

Again, this renders the conference networks moot at this point.  The only other way they could possibly survive is if they overpay to get their selection of games past the game of the week in their respective conferences.  So basically it would be like Tier Two rights.  I can’t see that happening, especially with ESPN having a finger in the pie with the SEC Network.

Saying all this, live sports on TV might cease to exist like it is now a decade later.  We may be watching all college football games through the various conference networks online by then.  This would affect my media prediction here as well as the previous three scenarios.  But until that starts to take shape, we have to assume the networks (and ESPN) would have some semblance of control over live broadcasts.

So there you have it.  All four scenarios.  Guaranteed none of them are correct but you never know what insanity will befall us over the next few years.  No one, back in the late 80s, would have ever thought the Southwest Conference would be dissolved around the middle of the next decade.  This despite the fact that we had the SMU death penalty and almost every team mired in some sort of controversy.  So my predictions are always with the idea that none of this at all may happen and it may be steady as she goes as we head into 2026.

Next up is the biggest games of the college football season.  No CFL post this season since I have less knowledge than ever about the CFL.  I was shocked to see how much tickets were going for for Ti-Cats games.  I think that’s absurd but that’s just me I guess.  Following the biggest games posts will be the various network predictions and then we get into conference predictions.  Finally getting back into posting on a regular basis so I better get myself organized.  That’s always a fun exercise.  And by always I mean never.